Wole Soyinka Award 2022 for Investigative Reporting

Deadline: 24 October 2022

Applications for the Wole Soyinka Award 2022 for Investigative Reporting currently open. Submit yours now!

The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) rewards, promotes and encourages best practices in journalism works from the print, radio, television, photo, online, editorial cartoon broad categories as well as from other special categories which focus on themes ranging from regulatory failures, corruption in the public and corporate spheres, and human rights abuses in the country.

The Award was instituted and first held in October 2005 to aid the development of an investigative reporting culture in the Nigerian media. In naming the award after Wole Soyinka, the initiators hoped to bring further attention to Soyinka’s untiring and relentless support for the cause of freedom of expression.

Judges are selected from a pool of veteran investigative journalists, media professionals and academics for the award programme which has so far rewarded produced 102 finalists, 11 investigative journalists of the year and 24 honorary awards recipients for their outstanding works.

Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting categories include:

• Print
• Radio
• Television
• Photography
• Online
• Editorial cartoon

Benefit

• The award win includes a cash prize, an award plaque, a certificate of commendation, a computer backup hard drive and an international study tour.

Eligibility

• The award is open to any Nigerian professional reporter or team of reporters (fulltime or freelancers)
• 18-years and above.
• Those who have published stories either online, or in print, or through electronic media but primarily targeted at and received by a Nigerian audience.

The main criterion for eligibility is that

• The work (single work or single-subject serial) must involve reporting on public, and or corporate corruption, human rights violation, or on the failure of regulatory agencies.
• The story should reflect a high quality of investigation in terms of newsworthiness, capacity to expose or prevent clandestine activities, corruption in the public domain, an understanding of human rights implications enhanced by the quality of presentation.
• Such works should have been first published or broadcast in a Nigerian media between 4th October 2021 and 3rd October 2022.
• An applicant may only submit a maximum of two entries. Please submit your applications through the application online portal.

Submission

The submitted entries should include:

• A brief synopsis of the story/series (maximum 400 words), picture, or portfolio.

In the synopsis, the applicant is expected to:

• Explain the background of the project, identifying the issues and key players.
• Describe what led to the topic or caption. Any unusual condition faced in developing the project and whether the investigation had any ramifications.
• Describe challenges to the content of the story/series not reported in the original work.
• Include up-to-date Curriculum Vitae for every reporter who bears the by-line of the story with passport photograph(s).
• Include any relevant background information on submitted work(s).

Click here to apply

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