The Asian College of Journalism has invited entries for three awards instituted to recognise and encourage the best works of journalism produced for an Indian audience. The deadline for submitting an entry is March 3, and journalistic work published from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024 will be considered. The winners will be presented the awards in May at the ACJ Awards and Convocation Ceremony.
The ACJ Award for Investigative Journalism is aimed to act as a catalyst and inspire more journalists, editors and newsrooms to pursue investigative work and, in the process, raise the standards of journalism and contribute to the public interest. The award will comprise a trophy, citation and a cash prize of Rs two lakh.
The K P Narayana Kumar Memorial Award for Social Impact Journalism will honour exceptional, original reporting on important subjects with the potential for social impact and which can spur reform and find solutions. It is named after K P Narayana Kumar, an alumnus of the Asian College of Journalism from the class of 2000, who died in 2019 at the age of 39. The award will comprise a trophy, citation and a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh.
Ashish Yechury Memorial Award for Photojournalism will recognise and reward the best news storytelling efforts through photography. “The images must be about a single story or a series of interlinked narratives (not a broad category or section). The judging criteria include quality of composition, preparedness and skill of the photojournalist, impact of the images and the accompanying contextual elements, captions and/or articles if any. Photo-led news reports or news features will be considered,” as per the website. The award for photojournalism will comprise a trophy, citation and a cash prize of Rs one lakh.
Entries can be submitted here
Rules are as follows:
1. Entries for investigative and social impact categories can be made in any format, including print, digital, text, multimedia (videos, podcasts, graphics, etc.).
2. Photojournalism should revolve around photographic images. There can be supporting material such as captions, write-ups and articles. However, the judging criteria will focus on the images and their ability to convey a story. Graphics, illustrations and digital art will not be eligible.
3. Entries should have been published primarily for and accessed by audiences in India. Entries that have been published with foreign audiences as their primary target will not be considered.
4. Entries can be made for work appearing in any language, as long as an English language translation is provided for the judging process. The English translation should be faithful to the original work. The work will be judged based on the English translation.
5. Organisations, teams or individuals may apply themselves or be nominated by anyone, depending on the nature of the work. A Team may consist of a maximum of five members.
6. Each entrant (individual or team) can submit a maximum of three separate entries in each award category – investigative, social impact and photojournalism. The same entry may not be submitted in more than one category.
7. Each entry could have several parts, such as a series of articles or episodes in a web series. However, the ACJ Awards Committee and/or juries may determine the limit or maximum number of entries that might be considered as a part of an entry (entries with multiple parts or a series should have a cogent narrative that strings elements together). Wide-ranging works such as books or entire websites cannot be nominated as a single entry.
8. The ACJ Awards Committee reserves the right to request nominees to authenticate the publication of their work(s). This includes proof of publication, or, where such proof is not available, a letter of authentication from the publisher or producer.