Global Shining Light Award

Submissions are now open for the 2019 Global Shining Light Award. Deadline is May 19, 2019, 11:59 p.m., Eastern Standard Time (GMT -5).

Every two years, the Global Investigative Journalism Network presents the Global Shining Light Award, a unique award which honors investigative journalism in a developing or transitioning country, done under threat, duress, or in the direst of conditions.

This year, there will be two award categories: Small & Medium Outlets (organizations with staff of 10 or less, including freelancers); and Large Outlets (organizations with more than 10 staff). Top winners will receive an honorary plaque, US$2,000, and a trip to the 2019 Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Hamburg to accept the award in front of hundreds of their colleagues from around the world.

Online submissions are strongly preferred. Any questions about the award should be emailed to shininglightaward@gijn.org.

If submissions are in languages other than English, you must provide a detailed English-language summary of a print or online story, or an English-language transcript of a broadcast script.

Competition is keen. In 2017, the awards drew a record 211 submissions from 67 countries; nearly triple the number in the previous awards in 2015. The quality was extraordinary. From 12 impressive finalists, the judges gave out four awards to journalists from India, Iraq, Nigeria, and Eastern Europe.

BACKGROUND

Each year dozens of journalists and media workers are killed  and hundreds more are attacked, imprisoned or threatened  just for doing their job. Many of these violations of free expression occur in developing or emerging countries, and quite often during military conflicts. There are a number of international awards recognizing such attacks on freedom of expression.

But there is another clear trend that emerges in analyses of global attacks on reporters and the media. More and more journalists are being killed, and media outlets attacked, because they are carrying out important efforts in investigative journalism – exposing uncomfortable truths, shining light on systematic corruption, and providing accountability in societies yearning for democracy and development. There are more journalists killed each year covering corruption and politics as are killed covering wars, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

On behalf of the global investigative journalism community, GIJN is pleased to recognize and celebrate these courageous investigative journalists and their work. Read more about the previous winners and their remarkable investigative stories below.

CRITERIA

The journalist, journalism team, or media outlet provided independent, investigative reporting, which:

• Originated in and affected a developing or emerging country
• Was broadcast or published between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2018;
• Was of an investigative nature;
• Uncovered an issue, wrong-doing, or system of corruption which gravely affected the common good;
• And did so in the face of arrest, imprisonment, violence against them and their families, or threats and intimidation

Deadline to submit is May 19, 2019, 11:59 p.m., Eastern Standard Time (GMT -5).