Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award 2025: (Deadline 1 August 2025)

Applications are open for the Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award 2025. The Young Journalist Award has given a boost to some brilliant journalists over the years, each one of them demonstrating a rich tapestry of investigative journalism, exposing social issues and holding power to account.

The annual competition is organised in partnership with the UK’s Foreign Press Association (FPA) and is presented at their annual awards event in London. The competition enables journalists aged 30 and under, from countries with a Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of less than USD20,000, to send in their best stories to be examined by the judges.

Benefits of Thomson Foundation

• The three finalists are flown to London to attend the gala award night in London, along with a host of other potential award winners and leading figures from the world of journalism.

Eligibility for Thomson Foundation

• Entrants must be 30 years of age or under on 24 November 2025.
• Each entrant should submit a portfolio of THREE published or broadcast pieces of work produced in the 12 months preceding 1 August 2025 (the 12 months prior to the deadline for submissions).
• For the purpose of this competition the “developing world” is defined as countries with a Gross National Income (GNI) of USD20,000 or less. Entrants should be from a country that meets the GNI criteria and reporting from/in that country or, if not in their country of origination, in another country fitting the same GNI criteria.
• The entries for the Young Journalist Award can be in any format: print, audio, video, multimedia, or a combination of all four. Applicants can provide URL links to their stories online. If necessary, they can use a file-sharing platform such as Google Drive for scans or PDFs of print articles, and for large audio or video files. A written statement of no more than 200 words per story giving a summary of the content and any impact it had on public debate in the country of publication or broadcast, should also be submitted.
• Entries can be in any language but should be accompanied by a verbatim English-language translation.
• Entrants should provide an explanation of any collaboration undertaken with colleagues or external organisations on the stories that they have submitted.

Application

Entries should be accompanied by a letter from the applicant’s current editor, on headed company notepaper verifying that it is the published work of the entrant. Where an entrant is freelance, or self-employed, verification can be provided by an editor from one of the publications/websites/broadcasters where the work appeared, or by a journalism academic familiar with the work of the entrant.