Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting 2018 (13th Edition)

Application for 2018 Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting (13th Edition) is currently ongoing. in other words, Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) is calling for applications from Nigerian reporters or team of reporters (full time or freelancers) for its 13th Award for Investigative Reporting.

About The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ)

The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) is a not-for-profit, non-governmental organisation with social justice programmes aimed at exposing corruption, regulatory failures and human rights abuses with the tool of investigative journalism.

The initiative started in 2005 under the name Wole Soyinka Investigative Reporting Award (WSIRA). It operated as an award-giving organisation till 2008 when it took on the name Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ). The change in name became necessary to reflect the intention of the coordinators to embrace a more robust line of activities; such that have greater capacity for engendering the appropriate values of investigative journalism in the Nigerian media environment.

The Centre is named after Professor ‘Wole Soyinka in recognition of his life-long work in support of the freedom of expression, freedom to hold opinion, and freedom to impart them without fear or favour and without hindrance or interference.

Award Categories:

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

Who Is Qualified For Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting? (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.

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 4th October 2017 and 3rd October 2018.

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: [email protected]

Editorial Cartoon:

• 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

Generally:

• Entry is free.
• Only a maximum of two entries across all categories of the award 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 license 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 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.

Judging Process:

• A distinguished judges’ board, which comprises respected persons with suitable knowledge, competencies and experience in news media practice, shall adjudge the competition.
• All entries are coded to disguise media house and reporter’s byline using the WSCIJ entry coding system before dispatch to judges
• Judges’ board members can only assess, score or vote on works to which they have no organisational or family ties.
• Due to WSCIJ’s commitment to excellence, it will be in order to have categories without a finalist if the entries in such a category are adjudged to have fallen below expected standard.
• The rigorous eligibility and judging process uphold the integrity and reputation of the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting 2018 competition. The judges reserve the right to disqualify any piece of work and/or finalist if, in the judges’ opinion, there exists reasonable doubt about the authenticity and/or accuracy of the submitted entry and/or the integrity of the finalists based on the set criteria.
• WSCIJ award recipients (Soyinka Laureates, runners-up and commended finalists) are expected to be persons with high ethical and professional standards. The organisation reserves the right to withdraw awards at any point in time based on the misconduct of an award recipient.
• Only entries received by the deadline will be treated.

How To Apply For Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting for 2018

ENTRIES SUBMISSION PROCESS

Interested candidates who meet the criteria listed above should send their entries to:

The Centre Coordinator
18A, Abiodun Sobajo Street, 
Off Lateef Jakande Road, 
Agidingbi, Ikeja, 
Lagos State, 
Nigeria.

Submission Process:

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)

Note

• 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.

Application Closing Date

The deadline for submission of applications for the Wole Soyinka 13th Award for Investigative Reporting is 4PM on 24th October, 2018.

Official Website