$10,000 in Awards: 24 Hours in World Journalism 2013

   LATEST NEWS (20 April 2013):  The Awards have now been announced and are as follows: 

   $5,000: Kenneth Okpomo, freelance investigative journalist, Nigeria. Kenneth Okpomo digs beneath the surface to expose some of the less pleasant truths about his country.

   $2,500: Mindy Ran, human rights journalist, Netherlands. Mindy Ran is a tireless campaigner for freedom of speech, not least on behalf of persecuted women journalists.

   $500: Wellins Chimusimbe, newspaper editor, Zimbabwe. Wellins Chumusimbe has to struggle with difficult conditions in his country yet continues to campaign on behalf of the Shona people and others including those with HIV/AIDS.

   $500: Anas Aremeyaw Anas, freelance investigative journalist, Ghana. Anas Aremeyaw Anas is a master of undercover work who holds power to account in Africa despite serious threats to his life and well-being

   $500: Yousif Shekho, freelance reporter, Syria. Almost every day, Yousif Shekho risks his life to reveal the horrors of war afflicting his home country.

   $500: Marielle van Uitert, freelance war photographer, Netherlands. Marielle van Uitart is a courageous, talented photographer who is defying her own war injuries and psychological trauma so that she can return to the battlelines in Syria.

   $500: Raby Idoumou, refugee journalist, now in Madrid. Having fled from persecution in his homeland of Mauretania, Raby Idoumou still seeks to inform the world about persecution and the suppression of free speech in North Africa and elsewhere. 

   Please note the judging criteria as previously stated:  ‘In allocating these sums, account will be taken of each contributor's working conditions in terms of journalistic opportunity, freedom and personal risk; the awards are intended to encourage and empower good journalism, promote freedom of expression and to recognise journalistic courage, integrity and ideals, as well as increase public enlightenment.’

   A further 5  contributors will be sent a free copy of the book, 24 Hours in  World Journalism (working title) when published, and a further 5 contributors will be sent a copy of the book, 24 Hours in Journalism (2012 edition). 

   Because it was difficult to choose between some of the entries, it was important to take into account the extreme disadvantages under which some journalists work. 

   Independent verification of these awards will be made by the law firm, Lloyd Brennand, of High Street, Brentford, Middlesex, United Kingdom TW8 8AH. 

   Describe how you are tackling your stories – your interviews, thoughts, dilemmas, crises and successes – all the things which we as journalists go through in one 24-hour period? If you wish, include personal matters, your colleagues, home and social life. 

   Recently my book, 24 Hours In Journalism, became a finalist in the British Journalism Awards 2012 and was voted one of the 40 ‘best books about journalism’. I am now using the same format – tracking one 24-hour period – to portray our work globally.

   I sincerely hope you will participate. 

   Last year – 2012 – was the deadliest on record for journalists, increasingly threatened by tyrants, religious fanatics, organised crime, militias, oligarchs, lawyers, politicians and many others who hate the truthful headline, broadcast and blog.    

   With your help, this project will show journalists reporting on Somali gunmen and Mexican drug smugglers, on African warlords and Chinese crime bosses. It will roam from Bollywood to Hollywood to Nollywood, from Teheran to Washington, from Rio to Beijing and everywhere in between. It will travel through the earth’s time zones to reveal how the media – newspapers and magazines, TV, radio and the internet – operate in this age of globalization. It will journey with war correspondents under fire. It will invade newsrooms. It will sit next to editors. It will explain why journalists succeed brilliantly and, occasionally, tragically.

   It will also deal with human interest, health and family, love and motherhood, showbiz and fashion, travel and shopping, politics, work and sport – all human life – and describe the power of the photograph and the video. 

   You may choose to write about the gentler, funny side of your working life. There are no restrictions. It doesn't have to be all-action. Journalism also takes place at the desk and keyboard, on the phone, in your head. This is equally important to record.

   The date and time for this 24-hour project: 

   Start:   6:00 (6am) Monday, 11 March, 2013. 

   Finish: 6:00 (6am) Tuesday, 12 March, 2013. 

   These times are UK/Greenwich Meantime (GMT). It means the project begins in, for example, Los Angeles at 22:00 Sunday 10 March ... Mexico City at midnight ... New York at 1:00am Monday 11 March ... Rio 4:00 ... London 6:00 ... Kinshasha 7:00 ... Istanbul 8:00 ... Nairobi 9:00 ... Moscow 10:00 ... Kabul 10:30 ... Karachi 11:00 ... Delhi 11:30 ... Bangkok 13:00 ... Shanghai 14:00 ... Tokyo 15:00 ... Sydney 17:00 ... 

   Please synchronise according to your own time zone – http://www.timeanddate.com/time/map/#!cities=136.

   All I can say with confidence is that it will be the 82nd birthday of Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul. At the other end of the working spectrum, there are the foot soldiers – like the vast majority of us – who will be pursuing our regular or irregular reporting beats in London or Lagos, Mogadishu or Mexico City, Shanghai or Chicago, Mumbai or Moscow, Delhi or Damascus, Tripoli or Tokyo, Havana or Harare, Baghdad or Beijing ... and digging up stories, some to amuse and entertain, others to cause mischief, because that is what journalists do. 

  Write a snapshot of your day as it unfolds hour by hour. Write the document in the first person. Add colour and dialogue. Give your motivation, your hopes and fears. Reports from photographers and videographers – including paparazzi – are very welcome. 

   Length: As little as 500–1000 words. But you decide. Make it longer if you wish.

   Write in your native language if you prefer.  Send it as a single document, after that period has ended.

   Please email to: 24hours2013@hotmail.co.uk

   Thank you in anticipation,

   John Dale 

  What top media commentator Prof. Roy Greenslade says in the Guardian, London: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2013/feb/15/newspapers-national-newspapers

 *$10,000  Awards

    John Dale Publishing Ltd (JDP Ltd) will award a total of $10,000 (ten thousand US dollars) to 7 individual contributors as follows: one award of $5,000; one of $2,500; and five of $500 each; plus a further 5  contributors will be sent a free copy of the book, 24 Hours in  World Journalism (working title), and a further 5 contributors will be sent a copy of the book, 24 Hours in Journalism (2012 edition). 

    In allocating these sums, account will be taken of each contributor's working conditions in terms of journalistic opportunity, freedom and personal risk; the awards are intended to encourage and empower good journalism, promote freedom of expression and to recognise journalistic courage, integrity and ideals, as well as increase public enlightenment.

     The awards will be announced within 28 days of the publication, electronically or in print, of the full, completed book, 24 Hours in World Journalism (working title). The judge's decision will be final. In the unlikely event of non-publication, the process will be declared null and void, no money or books will be awarded although some ex-gratia payments may still be made at JDP Ltd's discretion.

     All submissions grant JDP Ltd the right to publish them in edited form in the proposed book, electronically and in print, and in any extract and adaptation based upon this book, but otherwise copyright will remain with the originator. 

    Independent verification of these awards will be made by the law firm, Lloyd Brennand, of High Street, Brentford, Middlesex, United Kingdom TW8 8AH. 

    More details at http://www.24hoursinjournalism2013.com

    For guidance, you can read (free) how the previous book was edited by clicking here: 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/24-Hours-in-Journalism-ebook/dp/B008L2V7PG/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1357134140&sr=1-1

    Please email 24hours2013@hotmail.co.uk.

    More details at http://www.24hoursinjournalism2013.com

Guardian (UK) article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2013/feb/15/newspapers-national-newspapers

 Just published . . . 

One Day. One Million Stories

24 Hours In Journalism 2012

Amazon Paperback out now £9.25 / $14.95

 Countdown to next book . . . 

One World. One Day. One Billion Stories

24 Hours In World Journalism 2013

It's the big story that journalists often ignore. Their own. Write a snapshot of your work - in newspapers and magazines, TV and radio,  or online - to help build a unique narrative of one 24-hour world news and media cycle, running from 6am (GMT/UK time) Monday 11 March to 6am Tuesday 12 March. 

It could be a killing in Kenya, a riot in Rangoon, a baby in Beijing, a murder in Moscow, a lover's lynching in Lagos, a paparazzi chase in Hollywood. No story too big or too small. Celebrate the richness of journalists' work, on a global scale.

Email your day's events to 24hours2013@hotmail.co.uk

Describe what you did during the 24 hours: your news jobs, stories, features, photos, mishaps, interviews, events, meetings, humour, your workplace. Dale's book will be a 24-hour narrative so please give timings - in GMT if possible - loosely following this format (which can be seen more fully in his 2012 book, just published):

06:30  London: Breakfast at desk. House fire, three dead. Neighbour rescues baby. Arson...(Give more detail here)

11:00  Tokyo: Police murder conference. Politician dead in river. ....(Detail here)

12:30  Kabul: Bomb in market... (Detail here)

13.00  Mumbai: Bollywood star dies in breast surgery disaster...(Detail here)

14:30  Tijuana: Mexican drug wars massacre... (Detail here)

15:00  Washington DC: Obama's big speech... (Detail here)

17.00  Kinshasha: Rebel troops abduct orphans... (Detail here)

19:00  Beijing: Political crisis... (Detail here)

Okay, no one journalist is going to be that busy or that global! But you get the idea. You might break a world exclusive or have a quiet day (Dale still wants to hear about quiet days!) Include colour and emotion. Rushed breakfasts. Watery coffee. Lunch at desk or five-star hotel. Meeting with secret contact in underground car park. Quotes. Being married to the job. Story spiked - misery! Story splashed - ecstasy! 

Dale wants to make it fully global. He wants to hear from you whether you're a paparazzi in Hollywood or a war reporter in Afghanistan, a Bollywood movie critic or religious reporter in Jakarta.You can see the format from the current version of his book, based on 8 February 2012 - 24 Hours in Journalism - which is available on most ebook platforms, at 99p, and as a paperback. 

The intention is that the 2013 book - 24 Hours in World Journalism - will be published in Autumn 2013. As an ebook it, it will be very low-priced to make it accessible to all.

Your contribution should be 500-1000 words, but if you want to make it longer, that is no problem. You will help give an unprecedented insight into the role and importance of journalism worldwide. 

Please mark Monday 11 March, 2013 in your diary. And tell your colleagues.

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