Nominations are now being accepted for a new award for investigative reporting that has made a positive impact on Arab communities.
The Seymour Hersh Investigative Journalism Award, organized by Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) and the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), will recognize the best investigative reporters in 11 countries across the Middle East and North Africa.
“We hope that the ARIJ-ICFJ prize will encourage a new generation of Arab investigative journalists working against all odds to improve the lot of their local communities by exposing injustices,” said ARIJ executive director Rana Sabbagh.
The award is named for Seymour Hersh, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for The New Yorker. Hersh is best known for work that exposed the Vietnam-era My Lai massacre by U.S. forces in 1968, and the Abu Ghraib prison abuses in Iraq in 2005. In 2009, Hersh received the ICFJ Founders Award for Excellence in Journalism.
Who can apply: Print, radio and television journalists from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen.
How to apply: Send a cover letter, CV and samples of investigative work to info@arij.net. Submissions must include work that has been aired, broadcast or published in one or more of the 11 eligible countries in the past year.
Judging Criteria: Applicants will be judged on the basis of quality investigative work that has had a positive impact in one or more of the 11 eligible countries.
Application deadline: October 31, 2010.
Seymour Hersh Award will be given to first, second and third place winners. The first place winner will receive a computer. Second and third place contestants will get a digital camera and tape recorder. Winners will be honored at a gala dinner in Amman during the third annual ARIJ conference for Arab investigative journalists on Nov. 26-28. The dinner will be held under the patronage of Jordanian Senate Speaker Taher al-Masri.
ARIJ is a non-profit center based in Amman that has trained more than 380 Arab journalists, editors and coaches. It produced the first Arab manual for investigative journalists and has also provided small grants to cover 80 investigations in eight countries. These investigations led to new policies that improved conditions for the public. For more, visit www.arij.net
The International Center for Journalists, a non-profit, professional organization, promotes quality journalism worldwide in the belief that independent, vigorous media are crucial in improving the human condition. For 25 years, ICFJ has worked directly with more than 60,000 journalists from 176 countries. ICFJ offers hands-on training workshops, seminars, fellowships and international exchanges to journalists and media managers around the globe. For more, visit www.icfj.org.
More information here.
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