News/Media Literacy Award

In 2021, Global Youth & News Media Prize created a Press Freedom Teacher award in its News/Media Literacy category to recognize the front-line teachers who were making sure students learned that quality journalism is a good thing to have around and that some people faced grave dangers just to do that job.

The first awards went to three teachers in 2021 and were given in memory of Scott Schurz (1936-2021), a local and global champion of both press freedom and youth engagement. The laureates were: Janis Schacter (USA), Marisabelle Bellido Terán (Bolivia) and Olawale (Ibrahim) Gbenusola (Nigeria). Details about what they did are HERE.

For 2023, the organisation expanded the award to include news media organizations and renamed it the Press Freedom Teaching Award.

Since then the Prize has honored:

Journalism

• supporting youth in general
• giving youth crucial information and hope about the fate of the planet
• helping children cope with the COVID-19 pandemic

News/Media Literacy

• teaching teenagers the realities of doing real journalism
• informing about disinformation through compelling gamification
• giving compelling insights about how investigative journalism works

​Laureates will take part in an international ceremony and webinar designed to spread the word about their outstanding contributions to journalism and education and to encourage emulation of them.