Journalism awards guidance

Procedures and guidance for entrants 2009

The Mind Journalist of the Year Award promotes and rewards excellence in reporting on mental health, challenging discrimination, and contributing to public understanding of mental distress.

The award is judged by previous winners, and is one of four awards presented at the annual Mind Awards during Mind Week on Thursday 14 May 2009.

All shortlisted entrants are invited to attend the Mind Awards in London, where the awards are presented.

Entry

1.1 Any article (news or feature) published in national, local or consumer press in England and Wales between 22 March 2008 and 20 March 2009 may be entered.

1.2 Journalists are encouraged to submit a number of articles which they feel reflect their work on mental health.

1.3 Please ensure that your name, contact details, publication, publication dates, and headlines are all clearly visible with your entry. Please also note how many articles you are submitting.

1.4 Journalists are strongly encouraged to submit articles as PDFs of the pages, by email. We cannot accept text-only files without a copy of the published article. Please ensure that your submissions will be as easy to duplicate as possible.

1.5 The deadline for entries is 5pm, Monday 23 March 2009.

Judging

2.1 All appropriate entries will be forwarded to the shortlisting panel, who will meet to determine a shortlist to forward to the judging panel.

2.2 The shortlisting panel will comprise senior Mind staff from our policy, media, service user involvement, and information teams.

2.3 The criteria for shortlisting and judging are:

• responsible reporting that is factual, informative and non-stereotyping
  
• original material or a new angle on a mental health issue
  
• persistently good reporting or an outstanding contribution to awareness of mental health issues
  
• presenting positive images of people with mental health problems
  
• high quality of writing.

2.4 The judging panel comprises the Journalist of the Year winners for the previous two years and the chief executive of Mind. Between them they will determine the winner.

2.5 All entries will be considered to be in confidence, and Mind will not comment on entries or entrants, with the exception of the shortlist and the winner.

2.6 Entrants may request brief feedback on their entry.

Other considerations

3.1 Entrants agree to have their name and other appropriate details used in connection with the award if they are shortlisted.

3.2 As the Journalist of the Year Award covers only print media, we encourage broadcasters to approach the Mental Health Media Awards if they feel they have radio or television pieces with positive mental health messages.

www.mhmawards.org

How to enter

Please email or post your submissions to:

Journalist of the Year
Media Office
Mind
15 - 19 Broadway
London E15 4BQ

media@mind.org.uk

Please call 020 8522 1743 or email media@mind.org.uk with any queries.

Only shortlisted entrants will be contacted.