Annual Award for Investigative Reporting to reward works of SDGs and Covid19 (Nigeria)

Deadline: 24-Oct-20

The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) is accepting all entries for its annual award for investigative reporting online for the first time. The 2020 award will reward works that explore the intersection between Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Covid19.

The choice of a focus area for the 15th edition of the award program is due to the fact that Covid19 has exacerbated problems of poverty, hunger, education, health, and inequalities between female and male persons among others, that Nigeria faces as the country marks its 60th independence anniversary.

A pioneer initiative dedicated to promoting investigative journalism, the award, was first held in 2005 to build a culture of investigative reporting for Nigeria’s nascent democracy and honour journalists who expose public or corporate corruption, human rights abuses, and regulatory failures. Stories from the print, online, photo, cartoon, television, and radio genres of the media, published between 4th October 2019 and 3rd October 2020 are qualified to apply.

Accepted works will be collated and scored based on the quality of investigation, evidence, human rights elements, ethical reportage, courage, individual creativity, public interest, impact, and quality of presentation. WSCIJ will use its award coding system and engage a panel of judges from diverse fields with a good understanding of investigative reporting and its public policy implications.

Award Categories

Print – Newspaper, and Magazine:
- Scan and upload a clean and clear original print copy of the story entry in PDF format through the online application portal;
- Provide the e-paper of relevant pages of published work(s) where available;
- URL (web link) for the published work is not acceptable for this category.
Broadcast radio and television:
- Provide media organization’s web link of entry or upload on SoundCloud or YouTube for radio and television entries respectively and provide the weblink.
- Ensure submitted entries have a “cue in” and “cue out” which are linked to the person making the main presentation on the media to prove that what is submitted was done in the media house it claimed to be.
- Include proof of the date and time of publication as documented in the day’s bulletin of the media house for the audio and video uploaded for all radio and television submissions respectively.
Photo:
- Upload the original photo in the section required on the portal.
- For photos published in print, including a clean and clear scanned PDF copy of the full page of the published work showing the date of publication.
- For photos from media news organizations that publish online, the URL (web link) for the published work must be provided.
Online:
- Provide URL (web link) for the published work.
Editorial Cartooning:
- For cartoons published in print, provide a clean and clear scanned PDF copy of the full page where the published work appeared with a date.
- Upload electronic copy (e-copy) page(s) for the published work(s) where available.
- For cartoons published online, the URL (web link) for the published work must be provided.

Eligibility Criteria

The award is open to any Nigerian professional reporter or team of reporters (full time or freelancers), 18-years and above, who have published stories either online, in print, or through electronic media primarily targeted at and received by a Nigerian audience.
Generally:
- The reporter with the most outstanding work(s) amongst the finalists will be selected as the WSCIJ-Nigerian Investigative Reporter of the year.
- Only a maximum of two entries across all categories of the award will be allowed per entrant.
- All submitted works must be in the English Language. Where the entry is in a Nigerian language a transcript must be provided in the English language.
- Entering for this competition commits to grant WSCIJ a worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free license to use 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 are 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.