PREMIUM TIMES deputy managing editor, Ini Ekott, has been shortlisted for the Fetisov Journalism Awards.
The annual award, which has four categories, is regarded as journalism’s largest international contest intended to reward some of the world’s most outstanding journalists who seek to change the world for the better with groundbreaking stories.
Mr Ekott was nominated in the Excellence in the Environmental Journalism category of the award for his work that showed evidence of systematic failure by Nigerian law enforcement and the judicial system to hold wildlife poachers and traffickers accountable. The report drew from extensive analysis of wildlife crimes data and numerous interviews with top officials and operators in the sector.
The report was announced Monday as one of the 37 best entries shortlisted from 350 entries received across 81 countries. The organisers said the shortlisted projects include 15 collaborative works and that six of these are cross-border investigations.
Another Nigerian journalist, Alfred Olufemi of the Punch newspaper, also made the shortlist. Mr Olufemi, a former Premium Times reporter, was nominated for his coverage of the deadly farmer-herder conflict in Plateau State.
“The prize winners will be defined during the second stage of the competition by the FJA Jury. The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony in spring 2023. The date to be announced later,” the organisers of the award said.
Mr Ekott heads PREMIUM TIMES business and economy team and previously led key newsroom roles, including leading the paper’s investigative and standard desks.
He has reported extensively on corruption, human rights, governance, business and environment. He won the Wole Soyinka awards for investigative journalism and local reporting, and was amongst the global team of journalists that reported on the Panama Papers, the Pulitzer-winning investigation led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
In November, Mr Ekott was named the best financial journalism delegate in the Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa programme (Intake 2) delivered by the University of Ghana Business School.
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