24 hours in journalism goes global – John Dale reveals winners of $10,000 prize fund

Former Take-a-Break editor John Dale has announced the winners of his unique project, 24 Hours In World Journalism, which aims to capture a narrative of one news cycle.

This year Dale took the project global and offered total prize money of $10,000. The sum will now be shared among the contributors who sent in the best accounts of their day.

Dale asked journalists to write a present-tense timetable of their day, starting from 6am (GMT) on 11 March and finishing at 6am the next morning.

Describing the project, Dale said: “One Day. One World. One Billion Stories. Telling the story of those who tell the story. You write a snapshot of your day hour by hour, using your stories to illustrate your experience as a journalist in your region.”

In allocating the awards, the working conditions of each contributor were taken into account in terms of journalistic opportunity, freedom and personal risk.

Dale said that the awards are intended to encourage and empower good journalism, promote freedom of expression and recognise journalistic courage, integrity and ideals.

The awards 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 Uitart, 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.

This is the second time Dale has tried to tell the story of a single 24-hour news cycle through the eyes of journalists in the UK and around the world. On 8 February 2012, Press Gazette and Dale first launched the project, but it was focused specifically on the news industry in Britain and Ireland.

The two-part feature for Press Gazette – A Day in the Life of British Journalism – resulted in the book 24 Hours in Journalism.