The Isu Elihle Awards is an award created out of a partnership between South African based media watchdog, Media Monitoring Africa (MMA), the Network on Child Rights and Development (MNCRD) in Zambia, and Save the Children International (SCI), this award seeks to invest towards innovative children’s reporting through the Isu Elihle Awards.
About Isu Elihle Awards
Isu Elihle Awards were introduced in 2016 by MMA in partnership with Save the Children International, the Swedish International Development Agency, and Media Network on Child Rights Development (MNCRD) based in Zambia.
Isu Elihle Awards seek to contribute to a change in attitudes and behaviors of opinion and decision-makers and citizens across the country and continent from the premise that the media creates debates in society and carries great influence thus, the ability to drive positive change.
The role of the media in protecting and promoting children’s rights and, in many instances, in exposing their abuses and triumphs can not be overemphasized. It is believed that children are not a homogenous group and deserve the protection of their rights in all stages of their lives from early childhood development right up until they are legally considered to be adults.
However, there is an imbalance between meeting the public’s right to know what’s affecting children and respecting children’s rights to privacy and dignity. Journalists who attempt to report on children are often confronted with challenges such as a lack of resources, both time and technical means, to conduct adequate research for stories,
Therefore Isu Elihle Awards encourage alternative thinking over reports on children, and to make certain contributions to an environment that enables journalists to expose issues affecting children in the country and the continent.
Details of Isu Elihle Awards
- Isu Elihle Awards Application Deadline: 13th May 2022.
- Type of Programme: Contest
- Number of Awards: 4
- Value of Isu Elihle Awards:
- Overall winner R25 000
- First runner up R15 000
- Second runner up R10 000
Criteria For Isu Elihle Awards
- Professional journalists can access the Isu Ehihle Awards be they directly employed or freelancers, working in the continent of Africa.
- There is no entry fee payment required
- Families of Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) and employees are not eligible to participate in the competition.
- Isu Elihle Awards competition is held in English. Thus, all entries and story ideas should be in English.
- The awards can only be accessed Once by applicants i.e maximum of one entry. But each media house can have as many applicants as it wishes.
- All Entries must be in accordance with the instructions given on the competition entry form
- Any late, incomplete, illegible, and/or fraudulent entries will be disqualified.
- Note that the MMA reserves the right to refuse entries that do not comply with the above rules.
Isu Elihle Awards Selection
- For this award, a panel of distinguished, independent judges with appropriate knowledge and experience of children and the media will judge the competition.
- Meanwhile, the panel of judges will be determined by MMA at their sole discretion, and Children will also be part of the judging panel.
- Once the judges’ decisions are made, it is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
- The top six journalists will be selected by the panel of judges and will be taken to the final story-writing round of the competition. Subsequently, MMA will provide financial support to enable the journalists to write and complete their stories in the timeline provided.
- The finalists will be individually responsible and accountable to MMA for their costs.
How to Apply for Isu Elihle Awards
In applying for these awards, please note that handwritten applications will not be accepted.
Applications for Isu Elihle must be completed online using the online form, which can be accessed by clicking the link below: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfkO7ANTck8LII9L0zBpLnlfC8-332LMO9Nyo5As2oR2pPbwQ/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0
Endeavor to go through the application requirements in the Award Webpage link below before applying
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