Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting

The Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting is a prestigious initiative by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ).

This initiative rewards, promotes and encourages best practices in journalism works from the print, radio, television, photo, online, editorial cartoon broad categories as well as from other special categories which focus on themes ranging from regulatory failures, corruption in the public and corporate spheres, and human rights abuses in the country.

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.

Annually, nominations for the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting open in October and close in November for the award presentation ceremony usually held on 9 December – the World Anti-corruption Day.

Judges are selected from a pool of veteran investigative journalists, media professionals and academics for the award programme which has so far rewarded produced 102 finalists, 11 investigative journalists of the year and 24 honorary awards recipients for their outstanding works.

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

Apart from the investigative reporting category, the award also has two honorary awards— the Lifetime Award for Journalistic Excellence and the Anti-corruption Defender Award, to honour the great past of the media profession, and to recognise individuals or organisations for their noteworthy stance against corruption respectively.

Eligibility

The award is open to any Nigerian professional reporter or team of reporters (fulltime or freelancers), 18-years and above, who have published stories either online, in print, or 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 evidence-based investigative report 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 4th October 2023 and 3rd October 2024.
• An applicant may only submit a maximum of two entries.

How to apply

The application deadline for this is October 24, 2024. To learn more and apply, please click here.