NOW OPEN: 10th Wole Soyinka investigative reporting awards

The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) has opened applications for the 10th Wole Soyinka award for investigative reporting.

In a statement issued at the weekend, the centre said it would be once again stay true to its tradition of honouring outstanding reporting.

“The award programme, true to its tradition, will honour works that involve reporting on public and or corporate corruption, human rights abuses or on the failure of regulatory agencies,” the statement read.

“This year, the award plans to reward outstanding reporters from print, radio, television, online, photography and editorial cartoon categories.

“The submitted stories must have first been published or broadcast in a Nigerian media between 4th October 2014 and 3rd October 2015.”

Speaking on the credibility of the awards and the mode of judging, the centre assured anonymous and unbiased judgment.

“In addition to the entry coding system which makes the details of media house and by-line of entrants anonymous to judges introduced in 2012, the WSCIJ now converts entries to electronic format before sending to judges.

“The electronic entries system is helping to ease scoring for judges and enable the inclusion of persons from across Nigeria and abroad to participate in the judging process.

“Entries will be scored by a panel of judges drawn from the media and related professions who are passionate about investigative reporting. Over all, judges will be looking for ethical reporting courage, individual creativity and public benefit.”

Interested reporters may visit www.wscij.org for details of the 2015 award, which opened on October 4, 2015 and closes by 4pm on Friday, October 23, 2015.