A senior correspondent at PUNCH Newspapers, Alfred Olufemi, has been shortlisted for the 2022 Young Journalist Award organised by The Thomson Foundation, a media development not-for-profit organisation based in the United Kingdom.
Olufemi, who currently works on the PUNCH Investigations desk, was the only Nigerian named among 12 journalists from across different countries.
Announcing the shortlist on Wednesday, the foundation said it received a remarkable number of entries from all over the world, from Cameroon to Colombia, Ukraine to Uganda and Egypt to Ecuador.
“Each entrant needed to submit a portfolio of three published pieces of work produced in the 12 months preceding the deadline for submissions which was August 12, 2022. In partnership with the UK Foreign Press Association, the annual award enables journalists aged 30 and under, from countries with a Gross National Income per capita of less than US$20,000 to send in their best stories”
It also noted that the judges looked over the entries and selected the shortlist based on different criteria including originality, endeavour and the anticipated or actual impact of the story after publication or broadcast.
Olufemi’s entry, an investigation into the herders-farmers clashes in central Nigeria, was first published on Aljazeera in 2021.
A celebrated journalist, Olufemi has a couple of awards under his belt including the West African Media Excellence Award, the International Centre for Investigative Reporting award for data and investigative stories, and the International Organisation for Migration awards for migration reporting.
Contact: theeditor[at]punchng.com
