Out of a total of the 219 entries received, 15 journalists have emerged as finalists for the 19th Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting (WSAIR). The finalists were selected by the 2024 WSAIR judges which is this year chaired by Stella Din Jacob, Editor-in-Chief and News Director, TVCNews.
According to the information released and signed by Executive Director/CEO, WSCIJ, Mottunrayo Alaka as she said the winners will be announced at the 19th WSAIR presentation ceremony set for Monday, December 9, from 5pm to 8pm WAT at the AGIP Recital Hall, MUSON Centre, Lagos with Red carpet and refreshments starting at 4pm WAT. The award will close the 2024 Amplify In-depth Media (AIM) Conference and Awards.
The Shortlisted reporters are Segun Odunayo, Olukayode Jaiyeola, and Elliot Ovadje from The Punch, Isaac Ojo from Splash105.5FM, Umar Audu, of Daily Nigerian, Victor Asowata of The Will, Olufunke Fayemi, Voice of Nigeria; Chukwuemeka Emenike, New Telegraph, and Aaron Atsahyel, Trust TV.
Others are Jemilat Nasiru and Mansur Ibrahim from The Cable, Lami Sadiq, from Daily Trust, Adedoja Salam-Adeniyi of TVCNews, Ann Godwin, The Guardian, Daniel Ojukwu with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ).
Also, 10 speakers have been confirmed for the 2024 Amplify In-depth Media (AIM) Conference that will precede the award event. The two-day virtual conversation is scheduled for Sunday 8 and Monday 9, December, 2024 by 1pm daily on Zoom.
The theme is ‘Media credibility, investigative reporting and artificial intelligence’ with Tolu Ogunlesi MON, Managing Partner at WoweMedia and former Special Assistant to the erstwhile Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari GCFR, on Digital/New Media, as the keynote speaker.
The annual award which commenced in 2005 has been hosted on the International Anti-Corruption Day and the eve of Human Rights Day since 2009 to highlight the significance of these days and their relationship of the themes to investigative reporting and democracy.
This year, the conference and awards are funded by the Netherlands Embassy as part of the ‘Leveraging the power of the media to fortify the civic space and tackle malinformation’ programme in a collaboration with Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID).
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