18th Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting 2023

The 18th Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting is accepting applications through March 20, 2023. The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) will honor outstanding journalism this year in the print, online, photojournalistic, editorial cartooning, television, and radio genres that look into corporate and public corruption, reveal violations of human rights, and draw attention to regulatory abuses in Nigeria. Investigative, newsworthy pieces that uphold human rights and reveal or stop covert acts and corruption in both the public and private spheres are required.

The Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting was established in 2005, and since then, 116 finalists, 59 Soyinka Laureates, 13 investigative journalists of the year, and 28 honorary award holders have all had their achievements recognized.

Categories:

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

Eligibility:

• Open to any Nigerian professional reporter or team of reporters (fulltime or freelancers);
• Be 18-years and above;
• 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, 2022 and October 3, 2023.

Selection Criteria:

A panel of media experts and industry professionals will assess the entries using WSCIJ’s meticulous award coding and vetting system. Judges will score submissions based on the quality of investigation, the strength of evidence presented, human rights elements, ethical reporting standards, journalistic courage, individual creativity, public interest, tangible impact and overall presentation.

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 the 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