PREMIUM TIMES journalist shortlisted for Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award

Amardeep Bassey, a senior lecturer in the investigative journalism MA course at De Montfort University in Leicester, UK, said all the shortlisted candidates are ‘winners’ in his eyes.

A PREMIUM TIMES reporter, Qosim Suleiman, has been shortlisted for the 2024 Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award.

The award is an annual competition organised in partnership with the UK’s Foreign Press Association (FPA) to celebrate outstanding young journalists globally.

Mr Qosim, for his month-long investigation on the plight of residents in rural communities overtaken by terrorists in Nigeria’s North-west and how the violent crisis has restricted their access to quality healthcare services, made the shortlist for the highly coveted award alongside 11 other journalists.

His two other reports submitted for the award are an investigative story on the mass killings on the eve of Christmas in Plateau State and an investigation into the impacts of illegal sand mining on farmlands in Kano State.

The investigation on the dearth of health facilities, published in July, is titled, “In Northwest Nigeria, insecurity is fueling medical deserts.” It exposes how the dire situation of the residents has been increasing maternal and neonatal mortality and the outbreaks of preventable diseases, especially among children most of whom are zero-dose children.

Nominees

The Thomson Foundation said only 12 journalists made it to the shortlist of the 825 stories from 275 journalists who sent in applications across 64 countries of the world.

“This year’s top 12 entrants for the prestigious award are from Ukraine, India, Nigeria, Yemen, Ghana and Pakistan. They were chosen from almost 300 entries,” said the organisation on its website.

The non-profit stated that the selected journalists went to great lengths to tell important stories.

Apart from Mr Suleiman, the second Nigerian nominated for the coveted award is Kunle Daramola of TheCable Newspaper.

Mr Daramola was shortlisted for his stories, including the one that uncovered the horrendous working conditions of employees at a plastics factory in Lagos, Nigeria.

As it is the practice of the organisers, the 12-person list will be pruned down to the top three finalists who will be invited for the announcement of the winner at the Foreign Press Association Awards in London, UK, on 25 November.

However, Amardeep Bassey, a senior lecturer in the investigative journalism MA course at De Montfort University in Leicester, UK, said all the shortlisted candidates are ‘winners’ in his eyes.

Mr Bassey, a judging panel member for the award, said: “It was exceptionally difficult to whittle down what was an impressive array of fearless and brave journalism.”