Transparency Mauritius is launching the second edition of the Transparency Mauritius Investigative Journalism Award. The objectives of this Investigative Journalism Award is to encourage journalists on a better quality reporting on corruption related issues and to create more public awareness on this subject. This competition is organised on a yearly basis since 2014 so as to create a landmark brand in the media environment of Mauritius. This will help to enhance the involvement in investigating on corruption which will eventually help to promote democracy, accountability and enforcement of meritocracy in the country.
The winners 2015 will be announced during a gala ceremony on 30 April 2015. The competition is open to all Mauritian journalists working and publishing their work in Mauritius.One prize will be awarded in each of three categories: Print, Online and Radio and the overall winner of the Transparency Mauritius Investigative Journalism Award will be chosen between the winners of the different categories. The Transparency Mauritius Investigative Journalist 2015 will receive an Award as well as a free return air ticket with stay for two nights in Rodrigues. The winners of each category will each receive a Recognition award.
Transparency Mauritius believes that the media is an important stakeholder in the fight against corruption. In September 2013, Transparency Mauritius organised a five days’ workshop on Investigative Journalism for the local journalists and a manual on Investigative Journalism was launched in 2014.
The overall winner of the award 2014 was Mr. Michaël Francois of Le Defi Media Group for his film on “Kaya: Contre-Enquête 15 ans après”. The winner for the radio category was Mr. Shanmuga Allagapen, Journalist at Radio Plus for his article on “Le Financement des Partis Politiques” and for the print category, mentions were given to Mr. Rudy Veeramundar and Mr. Leevy Frivet of Capital Publications for their article on “Aucune Réunion Ramgoolam-Chidambaram à Davos”.
For this year, the members of the panel for the Award are Mr. Jack Bizlall, Trade Unionist; Ms. Manda Boolell, Media Consultant; Ms. Christina Chan-Meetoo, Senior Lecturer in Communication and Media Studies at the University of Mauritius; Mr. Yvan Martial, Journalist and Ms. Christelle Sohun, Barrister-at-Law and Former Journalist.
Transparency Mauritius avails itself of this opportunity to reiterate its call for a Freedom of Information Act and for the re-activation of the Media Trust.
The criteria for the Transparency Mauritius Investigative Journalism Award are annexed.
AWARDS CRITERIA
To apply for the Transparency Mauritius Investigative Journalism Awards, follow the guidelines below. Incomplete entries, as well as those received after the deadline, will not be considered.
ELIGIBILITY
The Award is open to any Mauritian journalist or team of journalists (full time or freelancers), 18 years and above, who have produced a published story whether through print or electronic media (television; radio or online) primarily targeted at and received by a Mauritian audience.
CRITERIA
The main criterion for eligibility is that the work (single work or single-subject serial) involves reporting on public or corporate corruption, human rights violation, or on the failure of regulatory agencies. The story (whether electronic, print, virtual, visual or graphic) should reflect high quality of investigation in terms of newsworthiness, capacity to expose or prevent corruption in the public domain and an understanding of human rights implications of the story.
Such works should have been first published or broadcasted between 1st January 2014 and 31 March 2015.
Jurors will evaluate each entry based on the overall merit of the piece, with an emphasis on:
- Engaging treatment of the issue(s)
- Interpretation of the issue(s): ability to present complex topics to the target audience in an understandable and accessible way
- Substance of the coverage: depth of research, analysis and presentation of the information
- Inclusivity: the degree to which the coverage includes the voices and views of people in the developing world
- Originality and creativity of the coverage: highlights new stories/issues or takes fresh approaches to familiar topics and presents them in a unique way
- Impact of the coverage: the potential for the coverage to catalyse change
Print Entries – Newspaper and Magazine
- Entrants are required to send the original and a CLEAN Photocopy
Broadcast Entries – Radio and Television
- Transcripts written in English or French are required
- Audio entries should be sent in Audio CD format, with accompanying script; video entries must be on DVD or VCD, with accompanying script
- 2 copies of each entry is required
Generally
- Applicants may only submit a maximum of two entries across categories
- The journalist with the most outstanding work(s) amongst the finalists will be selected as the Transparency Mauritius Investigative Journalist of the year
- Entering for this competition commits you to grant Transparency International and Transparency Mauritius a worldwide, perpetual, royalty free license to use your works for any purpose deemed appropriate for the development of the award initiative and the media
- Transparency Mauritius guarantees that there is absolutely no connection between any sponsor and the judging process despite possible sponsorship of some categories of the award. The winning works are known to only the judges’ board until the awards presentation ceremony.
SUBMISSION
The submitted package should include:
- A brief outline of the story.
In the outline, the applicant is expected to:
- Explain the background of the project; identifying the issues and key players
- Describe what led to the topic or caption, any unusual condition faced in developing the project and whether the investigation had any ramifications
- Describe challenges to the content of the story/series that were not reported in the original work
- Include up-to-date Curriculum Vitae for every reporter who bears the byline of the story with one passport photograph
- Include any relevant background information on your submitted work(s)
DEADLINE
All applications should be sent to Transparency Mauritius by 03 April 2015. Entries received after that date will not be considered.
