ree journalists vie for the Young Journalist from the Developing World FPA award

Two journalists from Africa and one from India are named as the finalists for the inaugural Thomson Foundation Young Journalist from the Developing World, UK Foreign Press Association (FPA) Award.

Toyosi Ogunseye, editor of the Sunday Punch, Nigeria; Judy Kosgei, a features reporter for Citizen TV, Kenya, and Neha Dixit, a freelance journalist from India have made the final shortlist.

They will find out who is the outright winner of the prize at the Foreign Press Association awards dinner on 19 November at a venue in central London.

The award enabled journalists aged 30 and under from countries with Gross Domestic Product per capita of less than $20,000 to enter their work for scrutiny by the foundation the world's longest established international media development organisation and then the FPA judges.

The journalists were asked to submit three examples of their work and, following 100 expressions of interest, an entry list of more than 80 was then reduced to 12 and the trio emerged as the front runners for the new prize.

The work could be in any format print, audio, video, multimedia or a combination of all four.

Revealing stories Thomson Foundation chief executive, Nigel Baker, said: The standard of entries for this new prize for the Foreign Press Association Awards has been exemplary and the three finalists have all produced compelling and revealing stories about life in their respective societies.

It will be tough to single out a winner and we have been delighted by the response to the call for entries from across the developing world and to see how journalists are helping to prompt public debate on vital issues.

Toyosi Ogunseye has worked as an investigative reporter, crime correspondent and news editor. Her stories included a report about a community suffering from ill health because of the effects of the fumes from a steel company; a probe into corruption by government officials and the mismanagement of local government pension funds.

The subjects of Judy Kosgei's submissions featured the suffering of girls because of a shortage of sanitary towels; the illegal use of marijuana to motivate bulls used for fighting in western Kenya and a European retiree who has married a Kenyan warrior and lives in a mud hut.

Neha Dixit, who worked with the Headlines Today, Special Investigations Team in India until last year shone a light on the Hindu widows who are dumped' in Vrindavan a town in north India and live in government run shelters.

In her second story she covered the loopholes in the Indian penal code that make it difficult for women who have been raped to fight for justice and the last story describes the plight of a rape survivor's family which disintegrates as the case progresses.

All three young journalists have previously won other awards for their work.

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