Jessica Pitchford Joins eNCA's Check Point

Picture from TVSA

Award winning broadcast journalist, Jessica Pitchford has joined eNCA's investigative journalism program, Checkpoint, show presenter Nkepile Mabuse announced via Twitter earlier today.

Jessica graduated from Rhodes University in the 80's, then began her career in radio news in 1986 and then to television in the early 90's. She is a former CNN African Journalist of the Year for Political Reporting. Her CV also includes other investigative shows like Special Assignment, which she joined in 2000. At the SABC she not only contributed to Special Assignment but also other news and actuality programming as both a reporter and a producer.

 She later moved to MNet's long running investigative magazine show, Carte Blanche, where she was most recently a managing editor. At Carte Blanche, she also penned the show's highly publicised memoir, so to speak, Carte Blanche: The Stories Behind The Stories. (More on that book here).

Checkpoint, which is broadcast on both eNCA and free-to-air channel eTV, launched on the 8th of April this year as the broadcaster's replacement to longrunning investigative magazine show 3rd Degree, which ended when host Deborah Patta left eNCA to join CBS News as a correspondent. Pitchford's addition to Checkpoint will add a certain level of credibility to a show that still trying to gain prominence in a market with other investigative magazine shows like Carte Blanch and Special Assignment.