Are you a journalist or reporter in South Sudan with passion for peace work? Then this competition is for you!
You are required to submit a two-page story pitch on peace journalism and reporting in the context of conflict in South Sudan, as per the guidelines below.
Community Media Network South Sudan (COMNeTSS), in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and with support from Sweden, invites journalists and reporters to submit entries focused on under-reported nonviolent responses to conflict, peace efforts and reconciliation in conflict areas.

Guidelines for Selection Process
•    The entries submitted will be selected for the 2023 Peace Journalism Award.
•    Pitches may include print, photography, audio, video, or a combination of media.
•    We seek pitches and stories that illuminate peace efforts, non-violent communication, and reconciliation in areas of conflict.
•    We are looking for stories that help us understand non-violent solutions to conflict, stories of ordinary people and communities working for peace in high-conflict areas, stories of emerging leaders attempting to realize their vision for peace.
•    We are looking for stories that help policymakers think about responses to conflict in new ways; stories that highlight the hidden costs of conflict; stories that voice or bring out the perspective missing from the way the conflict is framed; stories that highlight what it will take for peace to be achieved or sustained.
•    We are interested in stories that capture peace negotiations or community efforts to prevent violence and preserve peace and the impact of these efforts.
•    We encourage journalists to go beyond traditional conflict reporting and to consider telling the stories of conflict in ways that speak to peace and inspire the community to overcome the challenges that resulted from the conflict/war/violence.

Guidelines on pitching your story
•    The pitch should clearly outline your story idea, be well structured, stating briefly at the outset what the story idea is, followed by how and where the story will be researched.
•    It should state clearly what the story aims to reveal or contribute to peacebuilding, where you will publish (specific media organizations). 
•    The pitch should also include the expected impact of the story, who are the target audience or readers. These should incorporate in-depth investigative multi-media journalism solutions to conflicts witnessed in South Sudan.
•    They should be stories focussing on conflict resolutions and allow different perspectives including diversity, gender and different voices involved in a conflict scenario.
•    Story pitches should focus on innovative adaptation/mitigation solutions to conflicts in South Sudan.
•    Story pitches should bring out the approaches being used by different players to advance peace and conflict resolutions in the community.
•    Please feel free to integrate any other sources of credible information in your pitch.
•    The output should be an in-depth multi-media story incorporating text and photography (clear photos). Remember photos add value and weight to your story in terms of validity, authenticity, and accuracy.
•    All application documents must be written in English.

Eligibility
•    2023 Peace Journalism Award competition is open to South Sudanese journalists and reporters, working all over South Sudan. 
•    Journalists and reporters working in community radio stations are encouraged to apply.
•    Women Journalists and reporters are encouraged to apply.

Review Process
•    The applications will go through shortlisting by a panel of judges from the media community, to pick the top entries, then shortlisted applications will be mentored/supported by journalist experts to improve their stories. Please note that CoMNeTSS will assign a qualified media mentor to support you remotely throughout the pitching and story writing and submission process.
•    After the revision and improvement of the shortlisted stories, the top three winners will present their pitches live to a panel of judges and to the participants at the Journalism Peace Conference on 12 February 2023, in Juba, South Sudan.
•    The top three winners are required to be available to travel to Juba for the presentation and award ceremony (12-13 February 2023).

Awards and Prizes
•    The winners will be awarded the 2023 Peace Journalism Award on 13 February 2023 in Juba, South Sudan during the World Radio Day commemoration.
•    Prizes: US$1,000 for first winner, US$800 for the second winner and US$600 for the third winner. The winners will be expected to use the prizes to finalize production/publishing of their story and to support other community-based journalists on mainstreaming peace approaches in their daily work.

Applications are due 06 February 2023.

 Journalists and reporters are required to apply via this email address commnetssorg@gmail.com

The selection committee will notify the applicants once their entries are selected for the award.

Only selected applicants will be notified.

About the Organisers: The Community Media Network for South Sudan (CoMNeTSS) has over the past years been spearheading operationalization of the Radio for Peace Networking initiative, aimed at bringing together radio stations in South Sudan, to upscale their advocacy for a culture of peace through community radios and journalists in South Sudan. This is aimed at improving the quality and quantity of peace messaging by tapping into citizen journalists through provisions of incentive, training, reporting equipment and competitions through Peace Journalism Awards. Peace Journalism Awards -2023 is implemented by COMENTSS in partnership with UNDP with support from Sweden.