Human Rights & Religious Freedom (HRRF) Journalism Awards 2024: (Deadline 31 July, 2024)

Applications are open for the Human Rights & Religious Freedom (HRRF) Journalism Awards 2024. They are looking for outstanding stories that explore the questions of human rights and the lived reality of religious minorities and marginalized communities in India.

The stories that the award seeks to recognize are those that reflect the high standards of reporting. Candidates will be shortlisted based on the relevance of their work – their stories should highlight unreported and under-reported issues; explore new angles on familiar topics, challenge misconceptions, and counter stereotypes about the marginalized communities.

Categories

• Best Text Reporting on Human Rights & Religious Freedom: This category honours the best text reportage (1000 words or longer) on unreported or under-reported human rights and religious freedom issues in India. Journalists can submit one story or series of stories on the same issue. This award carries a cash prize of INR 50,000 and a plaque.
• Best Photo Story on Human Rights and Religious Freedom: This category honours exceptional feature or breaking news photography on human rights and religious freedom issues in India. Single photos are not allowed in this category. Entrants must submit a piece with a minimum of three and a maximum of 10 photographs. The photos must be accompanied with captions. This award carries a cash prize of INR 50,000 and a plaque.
• Best Video Story on Human Rights and Religious Freedom: This category honours the best video report on human rights and religious freedom issues in India. The video story must be between 4 minutes and 25 minutes. This award carries a cash prize of INR 50,000 and a plaque.
• HRRF Young Journalist of the Year Award 2024: The Human Rights & Religious Freedom Young Journalist of the Year Award recognizes a young journalist (30 years of age or under as of July 31, 2024) in any medium (text, photo, video or multimedia) who has made a substantial contribution to Indian journalism during 2023 in defense of human rights and religious freedom. Journalists can submit three to five best stories. All media formats are allowed. This award carries are cash prize of INR 50,000 and a plaque.
• HRRF Best Media Organization Award: This award honours independent media organizations (news website, newspaper or a magazine) that exhibits moral, ethical or physical courage in the pursuit of bringing truth to the masses. The selected organization must use media to address social, political, cultural and economic issues concerning Indian minorities and marginalized communities. This category doesn’t require submissions. News organizations will be recommended and selected by the awards committee. The winner will be announced during the virtual award ceremony. This award carries a cash prize of INR 100,000 rupees and a plaque. In case of a tie, the award money will be equally shared between the winners.

Eligibility

• Open to journalists of any nationality who have reported on the human rights and religious freedom issues in India.
• At this point, only stories written in English are eligible for the award. However, in the video category, the video stories submitted in any language are eligible for the award as long as they are accompanied with the English subtitles.
• The stories must be published either in newspapers (local, regional, national or international), magazines (online and print) or news websites. Stories published on personal blogs are not eligible for the award.
• Each category may be single-authored or multi-authored.
• They invite entries of reports published between August 1, 2023 to July 31, 2024. 
• Journalists can apply for awards in multiple categories.
• Journalists may submit a single piece or a published series on the same topic or issue.

Evaluation Criteria

• All submitted works will be evaluated based on the overall merit of the piece. It will be judged not only on quality of reporting but also on investigative effort, informational value, resourcefulness, accuracy and contribution to the overall understanding of the issue being discussed. 

Deadline: 31 July, 2024

Application

Entries must be submitted through the online platform. Kindly review all requirements for each category before submitting an entry. Requirements vary depending on each category and corrections cannot be made after submitting.

Click here to apply

For more information, visit HRRF Journalism Awards.