Each year, the International Center for Journalists honors outstanding colleagues with the ICFJ Knight International Journalism Award at our Tribute to Journalists. 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, media managers or citizen journalists. Those who meet the award’s criteria may nominate themselves. Please submit your nominations by Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023.
Our 2022 ICFJ Knight Award winners were Salvadoran Carlos Dada, Afghan Anisa Shaheed and a trio of Ukrainian journalists: Mstyslav Chernov, Evgeniy Maloletka and Vasilisa Stepanenko. Dada’s trailblazing news organization, El Faro, is a beacon of fearless, high-quality, independent journalism, shining a light on injustice in El Salvador and beyond. As a reporter for Afghanistan’s TOLOnews, Shaheed worked courageously to cover major stories, breaking taboos with her reporting and persevering through challenges as an Afghan woman journalist.
Reporting for the Associated Press, the Ukrainian team bravely stayed in Mariupol to document Russian attacks on civilians, filming the shelling of a maternity hospital and the broader human cost of the invasion in their home country.
At a time when attacks on journalists are rampant, the ICFJ Knight Award brings global visibility to the winners, whose courageous reporting often puts them at risk. While accepting the award, Dada said, “Central American journalists face the most difficult times since the end of our civil wars and military regimes…Journalism has been criminalized.” A 2021 winner, Pavla Holcová, said it provides awardees “an invisible shield,” helping to protect them against those who want to silence reporting.
The award reflects the mission of ICFJ's Knight Fellowships, which spread news innovation to better engage communities and improve lives. The program is supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. See past awardees here.
The winners will be honored on Nov. 2 at ICFJ’s Tribute to Journalists 2023 in Washington, D.C.
For more information about the awards, please contact Monica Lopez at mlopez@icfj.org. For information about the awards event, please contact Emily Schult at eschult@icfj.org.
Please help us celebrate the contributions of outstanding journalists by nominating one today. You can find the nomination form here.