AMDF Opens Entries for 2026 Journalist of the Year Award
By Uangbaoje Alex, Kaduna
The Africa Media Development Foundation (AMDF), Kaduna, has opened entries for its 2026 Journalist of the Year Award, inviting professional and freelance journalists across Africa to submit outstanding development-focused stories.
The annual award seeks to recognise exceptional journalism that highlights major development issues affecting Africans and demonstrates strong reporting, quality writing, originality and logical presentation.
According to AMDF, submitted works must be compelling development stories focused on Africa and Africans. Entries must have been first published or broadcast by an African or Africa-focused media outlet between September 1, 2025 and August 31, 2026.
The award features five categories: Television, Radio, Photography, Online and Print, with journalists permitted to submit a maximum of one entry.
For television and radio entries, journalists are required to provide a web link to the work on the media organisation’s platform, or upload the work to YouTube or SoundCloud where necessary. The broadcast must include the newscaster’s introduction and link to the reporter through the cue-out.
Photography entrants are required to provide links for photographs published online, while photographs published in print must be submitted as clear scanned copies of the full page showing the publication date, alongside the original high-resolution photograph. Online and print entrants are similarly required to provide the relevant web link or scanned publication.
Each submission must include the journalist’s current CV, a high-resolution passport photograph and a cover statement of not more than 400 words explaining the background to the story, the issues that informed the reporting, unusual experiences encountered during the assignment and challenges that affected the content but were not reported in the original story.
AMDF said all entries must be submitted online and must be in English. Past recipients of the AMDF Journalist of the Year Award, AMDF employees and their immediate family members are not eligible to participate.
The organisation said entries would be assessed by a panel of judges comprising respected professionals with relevant competencies in journalism. The judges may disqualify entries where there are doubts about the authenticity, accuracy or integrity of the submitted work or finalist.
The overall winner will be selected from the finalists based on the most outstanding journalistic work. The finalist and runner-up will be announced at the 2026 Africa Conference on Development Journalism (#ACDJ2026) scheduled to hold from December 2 to 4, 2026, in Kaduna, Nigeria.
Submission of entries opened on September 1 and will close at 11:59 p.m. on September 30, 2026. Interested journalists are required to submit their entries through the designated online application form.
Enquiries can be directed to awards@amdf-centre.org.
AMDF is an organisation that provides professional support to media and sustainable development initiatives.
