Jaldeep Katwala announces the 20 applicants longlisted for the first ever Tenacious Journalist Award and introduces the expert panel with the truly difficult job of awarding the prizes.
We’re delighted to let you know that we’re at the next stage of the Tenacious Journalist Awards! We received seventy applications – all of them great ideas. It would have taken eight times the £100,000 our generous funder - David Graham from the charity Changing Ideas - donated to see them all through to completion. So we had to make some difficult decisions.
We’ve now drawn up a longlist of 20 and they’ve been asked to submit a full application form, although intriguingly one person was nominated twice so the judges (more on them later) will have 21 applications to consider. A reminder that each winner could be awarded between £5,000 and £20,000.
So (drum roll please) here are the twenty outstanding journalists who’ve made it to the next round.
.
Adam Bychawski, Freelance
Andrew Feinstein, Shadow World Investigations
Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, Freelance
Claire Simpson, The Detail
Eve Livingston, Freelance
Finbarr Toesland, Freelance
Gary Kelly, Cow Daily
Harriet Grant, Freelance
Jack Shenker, Freelance
John Plummer, The Stray Ferret
Juliana da Penha, Migrant Women Press
Peter Geoghegan, Democracy for Sale
Rhiannon J Davies, The Scottish Beacon
Rhys Everquill, Leicester Gazette
Ruth Hopkins , Private Security Network
Sarah Hartley, The Northern Eco
Sean Morrison, The Bristol Cable
Tabitha Stapely, Social Streets CIC
Wendy Robertson, The Bridge
William Crisp, Point Source
And so to the judges who now have the difficult task of deciding who will be awarded a Tenacious journalist prize. Another drum roll, please...
Nick Davies spent forty years as an investigative reporter and is responsible for uncovering some of Britain’s most consequential stories. Davies has written extensively as a freelancer, as well as for The Guardian and The Observer, and been named Reporter of the Year, Journalist of the Year and Feature Writer of the Year at the British Press Awards. He has made documentaries for ITV's World in Action and written numerous books on the subject of politics and journalism, including Flat Earth News - an exposé of journalistic malpractice in the UK and around the globe. As a reporter for The Guardian, Davies was responsible for uncovering the News of the World phone hacking scandal, including the July 2011 revelations of hacking into the mobile phone voicemail of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.
Meera Selva is Chief Executive of Internews Europe. Meera was previously the Deputy Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and is a co-founder of the Oxford Climate Journalism Network. She is an experienced journalist who has reported from the field across Europe, Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa, including several years at the Associated Press. She is also a senior research associate of the Reuters Institute and an associate fellow of Green Templeton College at the University of Oxford, as well as a member of the Center for Economic Policy Research. Her research focuses on issues of press freedom, diversity in newsrooms, and media sustainability.
Isabelle Roughol is a journalist and independent media consultant, focused on building sustainable news organisations where people love to work. She was international editorial director at LinkedIn, where she led the global expansion of the platform’s content products and team, and before that a foreign reporter and editor in Cambodia, France and the United States. She writes The Lede, a blog about improving management and workplace culture in the news industry, and founded Borderline, an independent podcast about lives lived across borders. She’s a trustee of the Public Interest News Foundation.
Katherine Sladden is a campaigns strategist advising some of the biggest and most high-profile social justice and women’s rights campaigns in the UK. As founding Campaigns Director at Change.org UK, Katherine delivered multiple winning campaigns driving growth for the now world’s largest petition site and biggest activism platform in the UK. Katherine has worked with Grenfell United providing strategic campaigns advice to the survivors and bereaved families of the Grenfell Tower fire. As one of the people that set up Change.org in the UK, Katherine worked on some high-profile campaigns including putting a woman on a banknote, No More Page 3 and changing the law for 16-year-olds in police custody. Katherine has worked with and advised leading international purpose driven organisations and global activists alike, including the ONE Campaign, Virgin Unite and Nobel prize nominee Jaha Durereh.
David Graham is the founder of Changing Ideas, Law for Change and the Tenacious Awards. He originally qualified as an accountant and has been involved with many different businesses including property, consultancy, technology, retail and manufacturing. Following a varied career, his life had an about turn in 2003 after his son became paralysed. That led him to completing an MA in photojournalism and working with charities before founding Changing Ideas as a charity in 2007. David’s passion is for backing individuals and organisations who can make a difference, but need resources to be able try things out, to take risks, and achieve impact.
The judges will now consider the 21 amazing applications. They’ll be looking for stories that have the potential to make change happen, to make a difference, and to change lives. The winners will be announced in the new year. Watch this space.
Sign up to our newsletter for more updates from PINF.