Categories: OLD Media Moves

Contest on reporting on business bribery accepting entries

TRACE International, the non-profit anti-bribery business organization, is now accepting entries for its annual Prize for Investigative Reporting. The award recognizes reporting that uncovers business bribery with the goal of increasing commercial transparency.

Nominees may be print, broadcast or online reporters from any country who have investigated bribery schemes, business activities that create serious conflicts of interest or similar misconduct. Entries must have appeared in print or online during the 2016 calendar year to be eligible for consideration. Multiple entries per author are permitted, as are team entries produced by groups of journalists.

“We have seen truly unprecedented examples of investigative journalism in 2016 that have exposed corruption,” said TRACE President Alexandra Wrage. “We look forward to receiving this year’s submissions and honoring the journalists undertaking this important work.”

A panel of independent judges will review the submissions and select up to two winning entries. Each winning entry will receive a cash prize of $10,000 USD and the reporter will be invited to an award ceremony hosted by TRACE in mid-2017.

“Corruption is a global virus, and the battle against it must be, too,” said writer Diana Henriques, returning to the judging panel for a second year. “The TRACE prize uniquely recognizes and encourages the courageous, meticulous journalism that is part of that fight, anywhere it finds a voice.”

The 2017 judges are:

William Gumede, Associate Professor, School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg; Founder and Chairman of the Democracy Works Foundation.

Diana Henriques, Financial writer and author, formerly with The New York Times.

Rosebell Kagumire, Multimedia, writer and digital communication strategist, public speaker and award-winning blogger based in Kampala, Uganda.

Dan Klaidman, Deputy Editor, Yahoo News.

Peter Klein, Executive Director of the Global Reporting Centre.

Donatella Lorch, Freelance reporter, formerly with The New York Times, NBC News and Newsweek, currently based in Ankara, Turkey.

Jorge Luis Sierra, Knight International Journalism Fellow.

The winners of the inaugural 2016 Prize were the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) in conjunction with Swedish Television’s Uppdrag Granskning (Mission Investigate) and Sweden’s TT News Agency, for their investigation uncovering a complex Azerbaijan telecom scandal, and The Wall Street Journal, for their reporting on the vast network of corruption relating to Malaysia’s 1MDB fund.

The Prize for Investigative Reporting is one of TRACE’s many initiatives that supports its mission of increasing commercial transparency worldwide. For more information or to submit an entry, visit www.traceinternational.org/investigative-reporting. The closing date for entries is 31 January 2017.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.