News

Nominate an Outstanding Journalist for the 2026 ICFJ Knight International Journalism Award

Each year, the International Center for Journalists honors outstanding colleagues with the ICFJ Knight International Journalism Award at our Awards Dinner. We are now seeking nominees whose pioneering coverage or media innovations have made an impact on the lives of people in their countries or regions. Candidates can be reporters, editors, technologists or citizen journalists from countries where they face major challenges doing their work. Those who meet the award’s criteria may nominate themselves. The extended deadline is Feb. 15.

ICFJ Elliott Award: Zainab Bala, Producing People-Centered Stories That Drive Accountability

Zainab Bala is the team lead and editor of The Scoop Storytelling Initiative, a non-profit journalism platform dedicated to expanding underrepresented voices in Nigeria. She covers gender, climate, community affairs and other topics, with a focus on West Africa.

ICFJ Elliott Award: Linda Ngari, "More Often Than Not, There's a Foreign Influence in Issues Faced Locally"

Linda Ngari is a freelance journalist from Kenya who covers gender rights, mis- and disinformation and climate change.

ICFJ Elliott Award: Nalova Akua, From Lake Ossa to The Economist

Nalova Akua is a freelance journalist who writes for a variety of outlets, such as The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Columbia Journalism Review and The Associated Press. He reports on a range of topics from conflicts and politics to science and health.

ICFJ+ Launches the Plus Hub: Shared Services for More Resilient News Ecosystems

ICFJ+, the civic tech and media venture operated by Code for Africa (CfA), the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and PROTO, is launching the Plus Hub. The initiative gives information and news providers access to shared, enterprise-level services and technical support they can’t ever afford on their own. Our goal is to provide critical infrastructure for civic intelligence — information that helps people make sense of the world and act constructively to shape it. 

ICFJ Knight Fellowships: How Hundreds of Fellows Helped Transform Global Journalism

Since the inception of the ICFJ Knight Fellowships in 1994, 356 fellows from 53 countries have helped strengthen journalism for communities across the world.  Working with journalists and newsrooms, they have developed tools, resources and training in everything from storytelling and audience engagement to editorial workflows and business models. They have created media outlets that continue to thrive and expand today. And they have built over a dozen transnational networks that have themselves equipped thousands of journalists to innovate and serve their own audiences.

ICFJ Elliott Award: Dorcas Wangira on the Pressing Need for Global Health Journalism

Dorcas Wangira is a freelance journalist based in Kenya who covers science and health. In 2019, she won ICFJ’s Michael Elliott Award for Excellence in African Storytelling and the experience was a big career boost. “The award was a catalyst for my career growth,” she says. Since then she’s mentored other journalists.

A Journalist in Brazil is Showing Seniors How to Outsmart Misinformation, One WhatsApp Message at a Time

The most sophisticated media literacy tools in the world are worthless if they don't meet people where they are. Southern Brazil journalist Talita Rosa first encountered the phrase “fake news” in 2017, years before it entered everyday Brazilian conversation. That online course sparked her interest in fact-checking and later led her to launch "Prova Real," a pioneering verification project for the region.

A Teacher in Ecuador Found Teens Already Doubt What They See Online – and Taught Them How to Turn That Into Power

A high school history teacher and fact-checker, Gabriel Narváez, wanted to bridge his two professional worlds. His goal was to strengthen public discourse by teaching his students to question what they read and share online. Narváez sees hope in the next generation of Ecuadorians. He also sees a challenge. Even the best education can’t compete with the flood of unverified information that shapes young people’s digital lives. He worried his students didn’t care whether what they saw on social media was true. But he found something unexpected: his students were already skeptical.

How a Peruvian Journalist Turned Media Literacy Into a Community Movement

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Peru, Lucero Ascarza found herself staring down a new challenge in the classroom: disinformation. She had started her career as a reporter for Convoca, a Peruvian-based investigative journalism organisation, digging into the Panama Papers as part of an international coalition of journalists. Later, Ascarza transitioned into education at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, where she helped the next generation of reporters learn the craft. But it wasn’t until the public health crisis — and the mistrust that fueled Peru’s anti-vaccine movement — that she realised how central the fight against falsehoods had become.