Professional and freelance journalists or teams of journalists are eligible to apply for the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting 2017
Application Deadline: 4PM Monday 24th October, 2016
Eligible Countries: Nigeria
To be taken at (country): Nigeria
Eligible Fields:
- Radio
- Television
- Photography
- Online
- Editorial Cartoon
About the Award: The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) is accepting entries for its competition. The Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting honors stories with ethical journalistic courage, individual creativity and public benefit.
The Centre has honoured Nigerian investigative journalists through the award programme for ten years. It is focused on works that report cases of corruption, human rights abuses, and regulatory failures. Categories for this year’s edition are print, online, photo, editorial cartoon, television and radio. The call for entries emphasises that the submitted stories should be targeted and received by a Nigerian audience.
Type: Contest
Eligibility and Selection Criteria:
Shrunk Version
- The main criterion for eligibility is that the work (single work or single-subject serial) involves public or corporate corruption, human rights violations, or the failure of regulatory agencies.
- Categories include print, radio, television, photography, editorial cartoon and online.
- Stories should have been first published or broadcast in Nigerian media between Oct. 4, 2015 and Oct. 3, 2016.
Broad Version:
Print Entries – Newspaper and Magazine
- Entrants are required to send the original and a CLEAN Photocopy
Broadcast Entries – Radio and Television
- Transcripts should be written in English language
- Audio entries should be sent in audio CD format, with accompanying script; video entries must be on VCD, with accompanying script.
- 2 copies of each entry is required
Photographic Entries
- In addition to the broad criteria, photo entries will be scored on quality of investigation, human rights elements, visual interest, power to evoke emotions and quality of technique
- Each entry must be well captioned in English
- It must come with the original photo and a copy of the published work with clean photocopy of the latter and a CD with the picture(s)
Online Entries
- Clearly indicated URL (web link) for the published work is required as print out is unacceptable
- Entry should be sent online to entries@wscij.org
Editorial Cartoon
- Human rights elements, quality of editorial effectiveness or strength of the message, pictorial effect, drawing quality and originality are important here
- An original copy of the published work with clean photocopy are required
Generally
- Entry is free.
- Only a maximum of two entries across all categories of the competition will be allowed per entrant.
- All submitted works must be in English language.
- The reporter with the most outstanding work(s) amongst the finalists will be selected as the WSCIJ-Nigerian Investigative Reporter of the year.
- Entering for this competition commits you to grant WSCIJ a worldwide, perpetual, royalty free licence to use your works for any purpose deemed appropriate for the development of the award initiative, the Centre and the Nigerian and global media.
- To enhance the development of media in the country, reporters that have been winners in this competition on at least three occasions will be ineligible to enter.
- Employees of the WSCIJ and/or their immediate families are ineligible to participate in the competition.
- WSCIJ guarantees that there is no connection between any sponsor and the judging process despite possible sponsorship of some categories of the award.
- The competition shall be covered and interpreted with the laws of Nigeria.
Selection Process: All entries will be collated using the entry coding system and judged by a panel of experts from the media and related professions who are keen on investigative journalism. Judges would score stories based on ethical reporting, courage, individual creativity and public interest slant.
How to Apply:
The submitted package should include:
- A brief synopsis of the story/series, 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 that were not reported in the original work.
- Include up-to-date curriculum vitae for every reporter who bears the byline of the story with passport photograph(s).
- Include any relevant background information on submitted work(s).
Kindly send entries to:
The Centre Coordinator,
18A, Abiodun Sobanjo Street, Off Lateef Jakande
Road, Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria.
Online entries must however, be sent via email to entries@wscij.org.
Visit Contest Webpage for details; http://wscij.org/wole-soyinka-award/
Award Provider: Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ)
Important Notes:
- Synopsis should be in English and a maximum of 400 words
- All submissions (apart from the online entry where submission is to be made by email) should be in hard copy for all categories.