We are excited to announce the return of the prestigious Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award where young journalists, their work and their voices are at the centre, and where journalism's power to enact meaningful change is as present as ever.
Application form here. Now in its ninth year, the award enables journalists aged 30 and under from countries with a Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of less than $20,000 to submit their best stories.
Each year we receive entries from journalists that are revelatory, prompt public debate and have led to, or have the potential to lead to, positive change in society. This year we want to build on that and introduce a new element.
2021 is the year of COP26, the pivotal UN conference that is being seen as crucial to agree action to avert global climate catastrophe.
We have seen the number of environmental stories submitted for the award increase as journalists encourage us to engage with issues such as the impact of pollution, threats to biodiversity, sustainability and climate change.
It is then fitting that we should introduce an environmental component to our 2021 Young Journalist Award.
-- Play
-- --
Meet last years Young Journalist winner, Perus Mart n Leandro Camacho
Young Journalist Award: The details
Applicants will still be required to submit a portfolio of three stories in any medium (print, audio, video, multimedia, or a combination of all four) and these can be a mixture of investigative pieces and human-interest stories. However, we will be asking all entrants to ensure at least ONE of the three pieces submitted has an environmental reporting element.
For clarity, environmental reporting is covering stories about the interaction of people and the natural world and the issues related to that interaction. Environmental stories should be focused on one or more of the subjects covered by environmental reporting: sustainability, pollution, nature/biodiversity and/or climate change.
Our free online courses in environmental journalism are available to help journalists investigate local stories and understand the environmental drivers behind them.
The portfolio of work submitted for the Young Journalist Award must be in the 12 months preceding the competition closing date, which is September 10th, 2021.
Three finalists will be chosen by an independent judging panel selected by the UK Foreign Press Association (FPA) and an overall Young Journalist Award winner will be revealed on the night of the FPA Awards on Monday 29th November, 2021. All three finalists will be awarded £1,000 learning bursaries or funds to buy equipment.
The chair of the FPA judges will be Yukiko Kishimoto from Nippon TV and the three external judges will be Doug Wills, managing editor of the London Evening Standard and The Independent, Zahera Harb, director of International Journalism at London's City University and Sir Clive Jones, a Thomson Foundation trustee.
In the week of COP26 (31 October to 12th November), we'll be showcasing a selection of environmental stories entered into the Young Journalist Award. These will be presented on our website and social media channels. On the night of the FPA Awards, special recognition and an additional £1,000 bursary will be given to the journalist with the best overall environmental story, as chosen by our expert judges, including Patrick Greenfield, environmental reporter for The Guardian.
2021 is the year of COP26, the pivotal UN conference seen as crucial to agree action to avert global climate catastrophe.
While we are optimistic that the FPA Awards ceremony in London will go ahead as planned this year, the unpredictably of Covid-19 worldwide means we will once again be holding a virtual Young Journalist Award, which will be streamed live on the night of the FPA Awards.
We look forward to seeing this year's submissions for the Young Journalist Award. Good luck to all those entering.
The application form can be found here. See all previous winners on our dedicated competitions page.
For enquiries relating to your submission, email: awardfpa@thomsonfoundation.org
#TFYoungJournalist #TFEnvironment
Related content
The compassionate face of Peru
Meet our 2020 Young Journalist winner, Mart n Leandro Camacho from Peru
Why journalism matters
Our 2020 Young Journalist shortlist uses journalism as a vessel to aspire for a better future
Environmental journalism
Take our free online courses to understand the environmental drivers behind stories
Sara Loane Communications Manager
About: Sara is responsible for the creation and delivery of engaging and effective messages, campaigns, publications and print and digital design concepts that support and promote the foundation.
Explore our projects across the globe
More from Thomson
25/03/2023
To increase women's participation; these four words, written down in four seconds, in a proposal can take months, if not years to achieve.
Especially, wh...
24/03/2023
When I started out as an investigative journalist, there were few practising journalists in Kenya to learn from or manuals that I could read to sharpen my skill...
23/03/2023
Journalists in the Western Balkans have been given access to free resources and training in their own languages thanks to a unique platform launched by Thomson ...
22/03/2023
One million refugees have been welcomed into Germany since the Russian invasion who aside from being far from home have lost contact with their community and in...
21/03/2023
Millions of people in Tajikistan have read, watched and listened to an extraordinary social media campaign which has clearly shown the population's hunger f...
08/03/2023
It's August in Pakistan and much of the country is underwater. Catastrophic flooding has killed hundreds, left millions homeless and destroyed infrastructur...
15/02/2023
A strong, fearless and effective media, where talent is recognised and rewarded regardless of gender. That's the goal of She Leads Media: Bettina Fellowshi...
07/02/2023
Our pioneering WhatsApp course is leading the way in training journalists and citizens to spot misinformation and disinformation in Sudan - a country targeted b...
03/02/2023
The finale of the third Valley Voices project saw women journalists and writers gain confidence in writing about some of the more controversial topics facing wo...
23/01/2023
Take six of the brightest young journalists and connect them to six of the best in the industry and you have the recipe for Connect 6', a new, world-class ...
10/01/2023
You're a journalist and news breaks that Pele, arguably the greatest footballer the world has ever known, has died. A colleague in your newsroom is assigned...
14/12/2022
Two former winners of the Vodacom Young Journalist of the Year award in South Africa have finally been treated to their prize of an all-expenses paid trip to Lo...
08/12/2022
Sabin Agha is a Pakistan-based documentary filmmaker, multimedia journalist and a blogger. She has been teaching women journalists at Tribal News Network (TNN)...
29/11/2022
Yashraj Sharma is the interim editor of the online news portal of The Kashmir Walla. He is the winner of the Thomson Foundation's Young Journalist Award 202...
25/11/2022
Yashraj Sharma is the interim editor of the online news portal of The Kashmir Walla. He is a finalist in Thomson Foundation's Young Journalist Award 2022.
...
24/11/2022
Jyoti Yadav is a journalist from New Delhi, working for India's fastest growing news website The Print. She is a finalist in Thomson Foundation's Young ...
23/11/2022
Carlos Ra l Kestler is a 23-year-old journalist from Guatemala. He is a finalist in Thomson Foundation's Young Journalist Award 2022.
Every time a tyre t...
21/11/2022
One year ago, I woke up and was surprised to find out the great news that I was selected as the winner of Thomson Foundations Young Journalist Award 2021. This ...
07/11/2022
Ewen Macaskill introduces the second in his series of news writing courses for the Thomson Foundation - Advanced Writing: The art of storytelling
Storytelling...
04/11/2022
During a time of war, it's essential that journalists are prepared for any eventuality, however unlikely.
With that in mind, Thomson Foundation has respon...
20/10/2022
It has been tough three weeks for the panel of judges at the UK Foreign Press Association (FPA) who had the unenviable task of selecting three finalists for the...
19/10/2022
Three landmark environmental training courses devised by the Thomson Foundation have been translated into Arabic as part of a major push to guide and inform loc...
28/09/2022
A remarkable number of entries arrived from all over the world for this years Young Journalist Award - Cameroon to Colombia, Ukraine to Uganda and Egypt to Ecua...
12/09/2022
This article is written by Hudaibia Iftikhar, a blogger working in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province of Pakistan. Despite being highly educated, she holds a ...
23/08/2022
Running a media organisation in the Western Balkans (WB) is far from easy. A region beset by instability, corruption with challenges to media freedom which prov...
08/08/2022
A digital learning course on mis and disinformation delivered via the messaging platform WhatsApp has gone viral in Sudan.
The first seven days after publicat...
28/07/2022
Dina or evi is a journalist with the Centre for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS). She has won a number of national and international awards for her w...
01/07/2022
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 con...
24/06/2022
Hello, can you hear me? The zoom screen springs to life and the responses quickly follow.
Yes, we can. Good morning . The greetings come from Kenya, Nigeri...
20/06/2022
The crisis in Ukraine has again focused world attention on the plight of refugees and mass migration. It has also challenged journalists to report on the issue ...
10/05/2022
The moment you see your byline next to a story is a magical moment for any journalist. It brings with it a sense of relief, pride and hope that you'll get n...
06/05/2022
Success in our training programmes is measured in many ways but one of the most rewarding is reading or watching powerful stories produced by young journalists ...
25/04/2022
A pioneering band of creatives in Sudan are promoting social change through photography. The Thomson Media training for digital media entrepreneurs formed part ...
31/03/2022
Chemical and biological weapons may be banned but that has not stopped them being used in recent conflicts and for journalists reporting on the war in Ukraine k...
25/01/2022
The look of politics in Gagauzia, the small autonomous territory in southern Moldova, is decidedly male. Just two of the 35 members of local parliament are wome...
13/01/2022
Eleven women who participated in the inaugural Bettina Fund - Women in Media Leadership programme say it will transform their careers as they have gained confid...
18/12/2021
Stories on ecology and corruption, developed with Thomson Media support, are among the best investigations of the year.
By Dima Stoianov, media support expert ...
17/12/2021
Media in minority languages are relatively well developed, but one segment is significantly neglected in the six countries of the Western Balkans - Albania, Bos...
14/12/2021
Award-winning podcasters and journalists from the UK, India, Kenya, Australia and South Africa have joined forces to create what's believed to be the first ...
08/12/2021
The 7th of January 1991 was a big day for me. It was the day I started working as a radio journalist.
As someone who writes for a living, I'm supposed to a...
30/11/2021
PROFILE: Young Journalist Award 2021 winner
It was Kai Hui Wong's persistence in her investigations which led her to reveal abuses of power that convin...
30/11/2021
PROFILE: Young Journalist Award 2021 (environment) winner
It's hard to believe that Monika Mondal only started her journalism career last year at the hei...
17/11/2021
Three journalists - from India, and for the first time, Colombia and Malaysia - are the finalists for the 2021 Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award, in par...
06/11/2021
By Eileen Truax Eileen is a journalist specialising in migration working with Thomson Media on Moving Voices - a project looking at cross border issues affectin...
02/11/2021
As world leaders gather for COP26, it is a pertinent time to showcase the work o...
20/10/2021
In the latest in a series of personal reflections on womens role in the media, Luba Kassova, author of The Missing Perspectives of Women in News reflects on why...
16/10/2021
It's one of those points in the annual media calendar that early-career journalists await on the edge of their seats - and the moment has arrived.
We can ...
06/10/2021
A confidence gap is a constant theme when discussing the lack of women in leadership positions in media. Why do women feel that they dont merit their success mo...
20/09/2021
Chances are, most things that currently surround you have been produced following the principles of the linear economy. From the clothes that you wear to the ph...
13/09/2021
Journalists have a unique role to play in changing the narrative around the worlds environmental breakdown and becoming an essential part of the solution. Hear ...
We are excited to announce the return of the prestigious Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award where young journalists, their work and their voices are at the centre, and where journalism's power to enact meaningful change is as present as ever.
