European Commission Lorenzo Natali Prize 2024 (€10,000)

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About European Commission Lorenzo Natali Prize

The EU’s premier journalism honor, the Lorenzo Natali Prize, has been honoring excellence in journalism for more than thirty years. It is named for Lorenzo Natali, a former vice president of the European Commission who vigorously supported and advanced European development initiatives.

Ever since its inception in 1992, the Prize has focused attention on tales concerning significant global challenges. This year is no different from previous years in that it has honored journalists who shed light on stories about, among other things, the effects of the climate on people, digital infrastructure, gender equality, human development, jobs, peace, governance, and human rights.

Lorenzo Natali Media Prize Categories

Applicants can apply for any of the prize categories:

• Special Award – Photojournalism: Photojournalism work published by a media source based in one of the eligible nations in acknowledgment of the power of visual storytelling in relaying the complicated realities of our world. Entries under this category must be single pictures.
• Feature Journalism Award: reports that are intended to amuse, educate, engage, or inform the public and are published by a media organization established in one of the qualifying nations. This can involve inventions and answers to contemporary problems as well as an in-depth examination of a current event, circumstance, person, or organization.
• Investigative Journalism Award: reporting that is disseminated by a media organization with headquarters in one of the qualifying nations with the aim of exposing the public to significant problems such crimes, injustice, corruption, or corporate misconduct.
• Best Emerging Journalist Award: articles published by a media source situated in any of the qualifying nations, written by journalists between the ages of 18 and 25 at the time of submission. In addition, the Best Emerging Journalist Prize provides a special chance for training to give the winner the tools needed to produce journalism of the highest caliber.

Themes:

The Lorenzo Natali Prize honors and rewards journalists who, by their investigative work, address the following issues:

• Human development;
• Migration and forced displacement;
• Peace and governance;
• Sustainable growth and jobs;
• Youth;
• Climate, environment and energy;
• Digital and infrastructure;
• Gender equality.

• Sponsor Organisation: European Commission (EC)

Benefits of European Commission Lorenzo Natali Prize

Winners will receive the prize amount as follows:

• Each category’s winner will receive €10,000.
• Additionally, the Best Emerging Journalist winner will get the opportunity to participate in an attractive traineeship or work experience program with a media partner.
• Later in 2024, in Brussels, during the Lorenzo Natali Prize Award Ceremony, the winners will be declared.

European Commission Lorenzo Natali Prize Requirements

Format: The formats in which entries can be submitted are written, audio-visual, and multimedia (including interactive articles with charts and infographics, among other formats), single-frame photos (photojournalism, Special Award).
All entries have to be sent in as URL links. If the submitted reporting is only available in print, it needs to be scanned and made accessible with the publisher’s consent through an accessible link to a cloud storage account.

Publication Period: The dates of publication or broadcasting for entries must be between May 30, 2023, and May 29, 2024. Every entry must be publicly available online via a link, without being protected by a paywall.

Language Requirements: Submissions can be in all languages but with a translation in one of these languages: English, French, German, Spanish, or Portuguese if they are not the original languages of the reporting.

Length: Text entries should be 2,300 words, and video and audio entries can be 30 minutes long.

Geographic eligibility: The location of the media outlet’s office must be in an eligible country. Please find the complete list of eligible countries HERE.

Author(s): Reports can have one or several authors. The participants should be authors and copyright holders of the submission of the moral rights of their work.

Image Rights and Sound Recordings: The content for the Special Award-Photojournalism cannot be digitally altered in a way that substantially deviates from normal optimization, such as cropping or making appropriate modifications to exposure, color, contrast, or other visual elements.
Modifying a photograph’s core reality is prohibited. Nothing is taken out or added. No copying pixels to start from scratch or add to an existing image. No staging of events, such as asking people or groups to perform certain actions or repeat them before the photographer arrives, or setting up scenes to deceive spectators. No significant color shifts. Images created by AI are not acceptable.

Note: Any entry that includes derogatory, false, libellous, or vulgar content, or that contains anything that could constitute or incite behavior that would be grounds for criminal prosecution, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any national or international law, may be disqualified by the Prize Secretariat.

Application Date and Process

In order to submit their application, candidates must first register via the EU-Login service. If you do not yet have an account, use the procedures listed below to register for the EU-Login service:

• After clicking on the link to the application website below, click the registration page and fill out the required fields. Verify by checking the box indicating that you have read and comprehended the EU-Login privacy statement.
• After that, you’ll get an email with a link in it. To create a password for your EU-Login account, click that link.
• Your EU-Login account will become active as soon as your password has been created.
• You can use the application form to submit your application for the Prize after the account is operational.

Application Deadline

30 June, 2024

Scholarship Application Portal

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