PUNCH EDITOR, TOYOSI OGUNSEYE WINS KNIGHT INTERNATIONAL JOURNALISM AWARD

Toyosi Ogunseye

A Nigerian editor, whose investigative reports exposed companies that seriously endangered public health have won the 2014 Knight International Journalism Award. The award recognizes outstanding news coverage that makes a difference in the lives of people around the world.

Oluwatoyosi Ogunseye, the editor of Nigeria’s Sunday Punch newspaper, revealed that a manufacturing plant’s fumes were making its neighbors seriously ill. 

A prestigious panel of judges selected the winners. Ogunseye was honored at ICFJ’s 30th Anniversary Awards Dinner in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 10.

The award is supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which funds ICFJ’s Knight International Journalism Fellowships program. The fellows seed new ideas and services that deepen coverage, expand news delivery and engage citizens in the editorial process.

“The winners exemplify the intent of the award, which recognizes innovative journalists who are focused on informing people and uncovering the truth as a way to build stronger communities,” said Michael Maness, Knight Foundation, vice president of journalism and media innovation.

Ogunseye is the youngest and first female editor in the 40-year history of Sunday Punch, a widely read Lagos newspaper. In a three-part series, she proved that residents in a well-to-do community in Lagos had high levels of toxins in their blood caused by pollutants from a nearby steel plant. The coverage prompted the government to shut down the plant, and to allow it to reopen only under strict new regulations.

In another report, she disclosed that a nuclear power plant was about to be built in a poor neighborhood. After her piece ran, citizens mobilized, sued the government and stopped construction.

Her investigation into the death of a student who fell into a pit latrine resulted in a government initiative to replace the dangerous facilities. And her coverage of newborn babies dying at a top hospital in Lagos forced the hospital to buy more incubators for high-risk infants.