The awards for Excellence in Civil Liberties Journalism are a national program open to all journalists who have been published or broadcast in Australia between 1 July 2022 and 30 June 2023. 

“This is an opportunity to acknowledge the fantastic work local journalists are doing to support the advancement of civil liberties and human rights at a state and federal level. Journalists are so important in holding those in power accountable and must be celebrated.” Josh Pallas, President, NSWCCL said.

“We have tremendous diversity, depth and sophistication in the work being produced and it’s important to showcase this extraordinary talent.”

Nominations are open for:

• Excellence in civil liberties journalism to honour journalists producing excellent work that promotes civil liberties and holds governments to account, across two categories: open and young journalists.
  
  
• The Kafka for services to authoritarianism in Australia. This could recognise the year's most cruel and inhuman government act of the year; the most authoritarian political leader of the year; or indeed the most unhelpful media commentary by a public figure.

Nominations

Nominations are open to all. Please send to [email protected] before the Sunday 13 August deadline, including:

For all awards

• Please outline why you think your nominee deserves the award, with a brief description of the impact on Australian civil rights and any relevant background information

For the journalism awards

• Please provide a PDF copy of the materials nominated
• For the young journalists category, please provide the birth date of the journalist

Eligibility criteria for the journalism awards:

• Open to an article or series of articles, or a radio, television or podcast presentation, promoting civil liberties
• Nominations must have been published or broadcast in Australia between 1 July 2022 and 30 June 2023, and must be received by the NSWCCL by 11.59pm on Sunday 13 August.
• For the young journalists category, the journalist must turn 30 after 30 June 2022

In evaluating nominations for this year’s journalism awards, our judges will consider:

• The origins and development of the story
  (was it an exclusive, did it bring to light new information or a new viewpoint?)
• The resources available in developing the story
• Research and creativity applied in developing the story
• Accuracy, balance and an ethical approach
• The quality of writing, verbal communication and/or technical and production skill
• Public impact or benefit of the story