Call for Entries for 2020 Kurt Schork Awards in International Journalism

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Sabina Cosic, Chair, Kurt Schork Awards in International Journalism
Sabina Cosic, Chair,
Kurt Schork Awards in International Journalism

The Kurt Schork Memorial Fund (KSMF) is now accepting entries from journalists from all over the world for its 2020 awards in international journalism.

The award has, since its inception in 2002, sought to support journalists Kurt most admired, especially the freelancers and local reporters whose works are often poorly paid, mostly unsung and all too often fraught with danger.

The award which had honoured journalists in three awards, for freelance and local journalism and, and from 2017, for news fixers, are recognized worldwide as a mark of excellence and have an established track record for brave reporting on conflict, corruption and injustice.

The 19th annual call for awards is now split into three categories, local Reporter award that recognizes the often over-looked work of journalists in developing nations or countries in transition who write about events in their homeland; Freelance award for those journalists who travel to the world’s conflict zones, usually at great personal risk, to witness and report the impact and consequences of events and news Fixer award rewarding local journalists and/or experts, hired by a visiting foreign reporter or news organization, whose guidance and local knowledge materially benefited the content, impact and reach of the stories submitted.

Submission criteria

  • Three separate articles must be submitted, including when journalists are nominating fixers for the new award.
  • The submitted articles must have been published between June 1, 2019 and May 31, 2020.
  • Accepted media: any print-based medium, such as newspapers and magazines, or established online publications. Blogs, personal websites and social media pages or channels are not accepted.
  • Articles can encompass war reporting, human rights issues, cross-border troubles, corruption or other controversial matters impacting on people’s lives. Judges will be looking for professionalism, high journalistic standards, and evidence of dedication and courage in obtaining the story.
  • Because of problems with scanned entries and failed links in previous years, we require that each article be provided as a text file – MS Word (.doc or .docx) or similar text format (.rtf), or a PDF of a text file.
  • You may supply a URL link to your article(s), or a scan (as a PDF or JPG file) as supporting evidence of the publication context, but your entry will be disqualified if you do not also submit the required text files.
  • The awards panel will take into account nominations for fixers who have received more than one recommendation from journalists they have worked with.

Applicants are also expected to provide the following material a CV or resumé about their education and journalism career or about that of the fixer they are nominating; a passport-quality photo (JPEG, GIF or PNG file, size no larger than 250Kb) of the applicant or that of the fixer he/she is nominating; a high standard English translation if the original articles that are not in English and a short statement explaining what they have to do to get the story.

In the case of the fixer award, nominating journalists are required to submit:

  • A statement of nomination;
  • A copy of the story or stories generated because of the nominated fixer’s involvement;
  • A statement that the nominee is aware that he/ or she is being nominated and has given permission for the nomination (or perhaps the nomination for anonymous if win). The awards panel will take into account nominations for fixers who have received more than one recommendation from journalists they have worked with;
  • An acceptance from the nominator and nominee that they accept the terms of the competition; and
  • Two references.

Entrants must complete the online entry form (or a PDF for printing and posting if not possible).

Applications close on May 31, 2020. The maximum filesize for text submissions or scans is 5Mb.