Sections:
Finalists announced in Guardian journalism competition
23 July 2008
Image
courtesy of Eric Miller/Panos Pictures
The Guardian International Development Journalism Competition has
now reached its final stages with the announcement of the 16-strong shortlist.
A collaboration between the Guardian, Marie Stopes International and seven other
non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the competition was launched in March
with the financial support of DFID. Both amateur and freelance professional
journalists were encouraged to submit articles on key development issues before
the May deadline.
Read
the shortlisted stories online
Hundreds of entries
More than 400 entries were sent in, and the competition pages on the Guardian
Unlimited website have attracted in excess of 16,000 visitors over the last four
months. Julian Rose, of Guardian Professional, said: "We have been very
impressed by the number of entries, especially given the nature of the
competition and the length of the article required."
Douglas Alexander, International Development Secretary, congratulated the
entrants on the quality of their journalism: "I am delighted there were so many
entries to the competition and that the standard of articles was so high. This
highlights the UK public’s growing interest in global poverty and issues
relating to international development. I look forward to reading the winning
submissions."
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Engaging new audiences
The success of the competition in engaging a wider audience about development
issues was emphasised by Tony Kerridge, of Marie Stopes International. "We have
seen a number of the submissions and we were very impressed by the ability of
many journalists to grasp and convey such complex issues," he said. "We strongly
urge you to visit the site and read not only the excellent articles by the 16
finalists, but those by all the 40 semi-finalists. It is about time articles of
this calibre were written on these crucial developing world issues."
The 16 finalists (eight professional and eight amateur journalists) will now be
given final assignments relating to international development and taken on trips
to Africa and Asia so that they can experience and investigate at first hand.
The winners – one from each strand – will be announced in November, when all the
final assignments will be published by the Guardian newspaper in special
supplements.
The other NGO partners in the project are Camfed International, HelpAge
International, International HIV/AIDS Alliance, Malaria Consortium, Plan UK,
Sightsavers International and WaterAid.
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