Thomas Foundation Young Journalist Award 2022

Deadline: August 12, 2022

Thomson Foundation is celebrating 60 years of promoting excellence in journalism and to mark the occasion, we’re offering six rising stars the chance to connect with six of the best journalists in the industry as part of our prestigious Young Journalist Award 2022.

This year’s award will be extra special for another reason, too. It will be the first time in two years that our three finalists will be able to attend the glittering ceremony in London in person. The pandemic of the past two years has meant finalists could only attend virtually. 

For our 60th anniversary, there’s an added bonus which we’re calling ‘Connect 6’. To mark six decades of the foundation, our three finalists as well as the next three highest in our shortlist will have the opportunity to be mentored for six months by six established journalists from our alumni.

Now in its 10th year, the Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award in partnership with the UK Foreign Press Association (FPA) is open to journalists aged 30 or under from countries with a Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of less than $20,000. Those who meet the criteria are welcome to submit a portfolio of three published pieces of work produced in the 12 months preceding the deadline for submissions, which is 12 August, 2022. They can be in any medium — print, audio, video or multimedia.

A panel of Thomson Foundation judges will tackle the substantial task of scouring through hundreds of entries, for stories that are revelatory, prompt public debate and have led to, or have the potential to lead to, positive change in society. 

We draw up the shortlist of 12 then leave the final decisions to our international supreme court. Last year, we welcomed three independent FPA judges from Spain, Denmark and Bangladesh. This year’s external judges are Michael Crick, a British journalist for more than 30 years, who was also founding member of Channel 4 News, Stryker McGuire, former senior editor at Bloomberg Markets, and Megha Mohan, the BBC’s first gender and identity correspondent.

The chair of the FPA judges will be Alessandro Allocca, a freelance journalist working for the Italian daily newspaper, La Repubblica.

Eligibility Criteria

1. AGE: Entrants must be 30 years of age or under on 28th November 2022.

2. LOCATION: For the purpose of this competition the “developing world” is defined as countries with a Gross National Income (GNI) of $20,000 or less. Entrants should be from a country that meets the GNI criteria and reporting from/in that country or, if not in their country of origination, in another country fitting the same GNI criteria. To find out if your country qualifies, please see: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD

3. PORTFOLIO: Each entrant should submit a portfolio of THREE published or broadcast pieces of work produced in the 12 months preceding 12th August, 2022 (the 12 months prior to the deadline for submissions).

The entries for the Young Journalist Award can be in any format: print, audio, video, multimedia, or a combination of all four. Applicants can provide URL links to their stories online. If necessary, they can use a file-sharing platform such as Google Drive for scans or PDFs of print articles, and for large audio or video files. A written statement of no more than 200 words per story giving a summary of the content and any impact it had on public debate in the country of publication or broadcast, should also be submitted.

4. LANGUAGE: Entries can be in any language but should be accompanied by a verbatim English-language translation.

5. VERIFICATION: Entries should be accompanied by a letter from the applicant’s current editor, on headed company notepaper verifying that it is the published work of the entrant. Where an entrant is freelance, or self-employed, verification can be provided by an editor from one of the publications/websites/broadcasters where the work appeared, or by a journalism academic familiar with the work of the entrant.

A VERIFICATION LETTER MUST BE SUPPLIED WITH YOUR SUBMISSION. THIS CAN BE SHARED WITH US VIA A LINK TO DROPBOX, GOOGLE DRIVE OR SIMILAR. ALTERNATIVELY, PLEASE SEND BY EMAIL TO AWARDFPA@THOMSONFOUNDATION.ORG WITH YOUR NAME CLEARLY MARKED IN THE SUBJECT LINE. PLEASE NOTE, WE WILL ONLY ACCEPT VERIFICATION LETTERS VIA EMAIL, EVERYTHING ELSE SHOULD BE PROVIDED USING THE ONLINE ENTRY FORM.

6. COLLABORATION: Entrants should provide an explanation of any collaboration undertaken with colleagues or external organisations on the stories that they have submitted.

7. PLAGIARISM: Checks will be made for plagiarism and any entrant found to have submitted work which is not their own will be automatically disqualified.

Application Procedure

Visit their dedicated competition page to see their previous winners, find out what the judges are looking for and how you can impress them. For enquiries relating to your submission which are not answered here or in the entry form, email: awardfpa@thomsonfoundation.org

Application Registration Deadline: 12th August, 2022

To Apply: Click here

Official Website: Click here