Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting 2017

Application Deadline: 24th October, 2017

Eligible Countries: Nigeria

To be taken at (country): Nigeria

About the Award: The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) is accepting entries for its competition. Nigerian journalists or team of journalists, full or part-time, with stories published between 4th October 2016 and 3rd October 2017, can apply for opportunity.

This award seeks to honour journalism works from the print, online, photo, editorial cartoon, television, and radio categories in general. The submitted reports must involve in-depth coverage of clandestine activities on public and or corporate corruption, human rights abuses, or on regulatory failures in Nigeria.

In addition to the broad categories, WSCIJ in collaboration with Oxfam, an organisation dedicated to working to end the injustices that cause poverty, has included a special prize for reporting agriculture and food security in this year’s edition. The prize, which is part of a larger programme, will serve as an encouragement to reporters who are dedicated to reporting the focus area.

Received entries will be collated using the award coding system and assessed by a panel of media experts and related professionals with good understanding of investigative reporting. Judges would broadly score stories based on quality of investigation, evidence, human rights elements, ethical reportage, courage, individual creativity, public interest, impact and quality of presentation.

Eligible Fields: 

• Print
• Radio
• Television
• Photography
• Online
• Editorial Cartoon

Type: Contest

Eligibility and Selection Criteria: 

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 delivery/presentation/writing. Such works should have been first published or broadcast in a Nigerian media between 4 October 2016 and 3 October 2017.

An applicant may only submit a maximum of a total of two entries.

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 while video entries must be on CD, with accompanying script.
• 2 copies of each entry is required

Photographic Entries

• In addition to the broad criteria, photo entries will be scored on creativity, impact and technical quality.
• Each entry must be well captioned in English
• It must come with the original photo, a copy of the published work with a 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 printouts are unacceptable.
• Entry should be sent online to entries@wscij.org

Editorial Cartooning

• In addition to the broad criteria, editorial cartooning will also be scored on impact, creativity and originality.
• An original copy of the published work with clean photocopy are required

Special prize for reporting food security and agriculture

A special prize for reporting food security and agriculture has been introduced this year as a part of WSCIJ’s media engagement programme on food security and agriculture in collaboration with Oxfam’s Voices for Food Security. The programme plans to improve media and public awareness on issues surrounding agriculture generally and food security in particular in the country. The prize on its part will serve as an encouragement to reporters who have been dedicated to reporting the issues.

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: 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

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.