Avina Foundation Latin American Journalism Awards

The Avina Foundation has announced its 2008/9 Latin American Journalism Awards.

Our friends at Avina have invited openDemocracy to participate in the process of eliciting proposals and of publishing English language versions of the pieces produced.

This document describes the openDemocracy process and how it will interact with Avina's decisions.

Contents

• What is the award?
• What are openDemocracy's and Avina's roles in the process?
• What are the criteria for successful applications?
• Who should compete for these prizes?
• How much are they worth and what costs can they cover?
• What languages will you accept applications in?
• Why apply through openDemocracy rather than directly to Avina?
• Who is on openDemocracy's Latin American advisory board?
• What should I do next?
• What is the deadline?

What is the award?

The Avina 2008/9 Latin American Journalism Awards comprise approximately 50 grants of $4,000 per award for original articles, videos and podcasts on a broad range of issues relating to sustavinable development in Latin America.

``Sustavinable'' is not taken in a narrow environmental sense: it includes questions of governance, integration and culture, and contributionas are specifically sought in the areas of:

• Equity
• Democratic Governance and Rule of Law
• Sustavinable Economic Development
• Conservation and Natural Resources Management
• Integration of Latin America
• Art and Society

Eligibility is very broad. The goal is

to enhance the public agenda with respect to the relevant issues underlying the search for sustavinable development models in Latin America.

What are openDemocracy's and Avina's roles in the process?

Avina will appoint the jury that makes the decision as to whether to award a grant. openDemocracy will be a publishing outlet for the articles that come through openDemocracy's process, which we believe will strengthen an application to Avina. openDemocracy's Latin American Advisory board will pre-qualify proposals to ensure that they are likely to be suitable for openDemocracy publication.

What are the criteria for successful applications?

openDemocracy's Latin American Advisory board needs to be confident that the resulting article(s) will be true to the quality and ethos of openDemocracy.

Avina's regulations stipulate the follwoing criteria:

• Effective contribution to enhanced understanding and contextualization of subjects related to sustainable development in Latin America at the local, regional, international and/or cross-border level.

• Effective contribution to enhanced understanding and contextualization of subjects related to sustainable development in Latin America at the local, regional, international and/or cross-border level.

• For proposals coming from non-Latin American countries, it will be taken into account the way in which the proposal relates Latin American problems and challenges with that country/region/continent

• Development of a journalistic coverage inspired by a plurality of viewpoints, a variety of sources, and the ethical handling of information.

• Investigations whose focus is not restricted to the denunciation of problems, but to the exploration of successful initiatives and the debate of possible solutions to those problems, taking into account, among other factors, the organization of social networks, the dialogue among the public, social and private sectors and other forms of collective action.

• Depth, rigor, and social relevance of the investigation.

• The Responsible Journalist´s professional background (and that of the other team members in the case of a team application).

• Publication space or the time of broadcast proposed for the investigative report; whether the report consists of a single news piece or a series; and the section in which the report will be published or time at which the report will be broadcast.

• Coverage (geographic reach) and impact of the communication outlet either at the local, national or international level.

• Efficient use of the financial resources allocated.

Who should compete for these prizes?

Freelance writers, academics, graduate students ...anyone with a real interest in Latin America, its politics and its culture. You might be alone or working as a team. You do not have to be an existing openDemocracy author to have your proposal endorsed by openDemocracy.

How much are they worth and what costs can they cover?

Avina will pay $4,000 per award. There are very few restrictions on what the grant can be spent on. The winners will also participate in the Latin American Meeting of the AVINA Awards that will take place in Latin America. The meeting will be held on November 2008. Avina will additionally pay all costs associated with the meeting.

What languages will you accept applications in?

We will consider applications to be written in English, Spanish or Portuguese. For non-English articles, the budget submitted to Avina will have to include translation into English for openDemocracy publication.

Why apply through openDemocracy rather than directly to Avina?

openDemocracy will treat applications to this award as it would any other commissioning proposal: what are its merits as an in-depth openDemocracy article? The Latin American Advisory board will pre-qualify and discuss proposals with authors to refine them. Once pre-qualified, the English-language version of the article will be published in openDemocracy. If it meets all openDemocracy's standards for front page promotion, the article will receive considerable exposure.

Who is on openDemocracy's Latin American advisory board?

David Hayes

David is co-founder and Deputy Editor of openDemocracy.

Kanishk Tharoor

is Associate Editor at openDemocracy. He recently escaped to London from Yale, where he graduated magna cum laude with BAs in History and Literature. He is widely published and award-winning author of short fiction.

Arthur Ituassu

is a regular openDemocracy author, openDemocracy Contributing Editor, and professor of international relations at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Ivan Briscoe

is a regular openDemocracy author, openDemocracy Contributing Editor, senior researcher at the Fundacion para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Dialogo Exterior (Fride), Madrid. He was previously editor of the English edition of El País newspaper in Madrid and also worked for the Buenos Aires Herald, the UNESCO Courier and in the field of development research.

What should I do next?

Look at the Avina guidelines for the awards.

Look at the form that we will together need to complete for your proposal.

Send us at openDemocracy a 300 word email summarising your article and attaching your curriculum vitae. We will get in touch with you to tell you whether we would like to endorse your project for an Avina award and whether we have editorial suggestions for modification.

We will together proceed to complete the Avina application form.

What is the deadline?

Avina applications must be submitted by July 1st 2008. openDemcoracy-assisted enquiries should reach openDemocracy by Tuesday June 24th 2008.

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tony curzon price 2008-05-27

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