16th Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting 2021

Deadline: October 24, 2021

Applications are open for the 16th Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting 2021. The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) rewards, promotes and encourages best practices in journalism works which focus on themes ranging from regulatory failures, corruption in the public and corporate spheres, and human rights abuses in Nigeria.

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.

Categories

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

Award

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

Eligibility

• Open to any Nigerian professional reporter or team of reporters (full-time or freelancers);
• Applicants should be 18-years and above, and have published stories either online, in print, or through electronic media, primarily targeted at and received by a Nigerian audience.
• 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 October 4, 2020 and October 3, 2021.

Requirements

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.
• Every entry under this category (single or series) must not exceed 5000 words

Broadcast radio and television

• Provide media organisation’s weblink of entry where available. When absent, upload the entry on SoundCloud for radio or YouTube for television and provide the weblink.
• Ensure the 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

In addition to the broad criteria, photo entries will be scored on creativity, impact and technical quality.

• Upload the original photo in the section required on the portal.
  For photos published in print, include a clean and clear scanned PDF copy of the full page of the published work showing the date of publication. Entrants are also encouraged to provide the electronic paper copy (e-copy) page(s) for the published work(s) where available.
  For photos from media news organisations 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

In addition to the broad criteria, editorial cartooning will also be scored on impact, creativity and originality.

• For cartoons published in print, provide a clean and clear scanned PDF copy of the full page where the published work appeared with 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.

Application

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 that were 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

For more information, visit Wole Soyinka Award.