The annual Sanlam Awards for Community Press is aimed at encouraging excellence and rewarding meritorious work.

The competition is run by the Forum of Community Journalists (FCJ), under the auspices of the Print Media of South Africa (PMSA).

Full-time editors, journalists and photographers from all South African and Namibian community newspapers, which are not published more than twice a week, qualify for the awards.

Sanlam took over the sponsorship of the community press (at the time, also referred to as country newspapers) from the KWV in 1991.

The competition covers the 12 months ending on May 31 of the current year, i.e. June 1 of previous year to May 31 of current year.