Asian College of Journalism has invited entries from journalists and media organisations for awards in investigative journalism.

The Media Development Foundation (MDF), the trust that administers Asian College of Journalism, will present the awards for investigative journalism in print/online and audio- visual categories on May 3, the World Press Freedom Day.

The awards will carry a citation and INR 2,00,000/ each in prize money.The nominations are open till February 27.Any journalistic work that was published or broadcast during the calendar year 2016 is eligible for nomination by a news organisation, working or freelance journalists.There can be up to 5 members comprising a team that can be nominated for the award.Justice Ajit Prakash Shah will be the chairperson of the awards jury this year.Other jury members are are economist Jayati Ghosh, senior journalist Krishna Prasad and filmmaker Madhusree Dutta.

Categories:

1. Print + Digital (newspapers, magazines, websites and other digital platforms).

2. Broadcast (television).

Understanding Investigative Journalism

Investigative journalism, for the purpose of the awards, will be that which exposes wrongdoing and which has the public interest in mind. It will cover a wide variety of journalistic investigation including of abuse of public office, environmental degradation, human rights violation, financial fraud, corporate mismanagement, gender-related violence, political apathy, war crimes, civic neglect and much more. This is only an indicative, not an exhaustive, list of what could come within the ambit of investigative journalism. The judging criteria will include the nature of the investigation, its impact and the extent of the public interest involved.

Rules

1. Entries can be made for any format of journalism – print, broadcast and digital/multimedia.

2. Entries should have been published/ broadcast in India.

3. Entries can be made for work appearing in any language, as long as an English language translation is provided for judging purposes. The English translation should be faithful to the original work. The work will be judged based on the English translation.

4. Organisations or individuals may apply, based on the nature of the work and the number of persons involved, i.e., teams or individuals may be nominated.

5. Each entrant can submit a maximum of three separate entries in each category.

6. Each entry could have several parts, such a series of articles or multiple parts of a documentary.

7. Winners’ work will be showcased on the awards website.

8. The ACJ Awards Committee reserves the right to request nominees to authenticate the publication or broadcast of their work(s). This includes proof of publication, or, where such proof is not available, a letter of authentication from the publisher or editor.

Important Dates

1. Only journalistic work that was published or broadcast from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2016 will be considered.

2. The deadline for nominations/entries is February 28, 2017. Entries submitted after this date will not be considered.

3. The final shortlist will be announced and the winners will be presented the awards on 3 May 2017 in Chennai at the ACJ Convocation Ceremony.

Awards Jury

1. Justice Ajit Prakash Shah, Chairman 20th Law Commission of India – Chairperson

2. Prof. Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics, JNU, author, columnist

3. Mr Krishna Prasad, former Chief Editor, Outlook

4. Ms Madhusree Dutta, documentary filmmaker, author, curator

Contact

For any queries about the awards, please write to: acjawards@gmail.com

Nikhil Kanekal, ACJ Awards Coordinator, Email: nikhilkanekal@gmail.com, Cell: (+91) 9611511159

Lakshmi Ramji, Burser, ACJ, Email: lakshmi.acj@gmail.com

 From Submission:Nomination submission form for the ACJ Awards for Investigative Journalism