The Trustees of the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME) Trust Fund have announced the call for entries for the 34th edition of Africa’s longest-running media awards programme.
It invited journalists, media professionals and organisations to submit works published in 2024 across a wide range of categories before Wednesday, September 17, 2025, the deadline.
A press statement by Kehinde Taiwo said for this year’s edition, entries are open in four broad segments: reporting, commentary, documentary/drama, and aesthetics.
The reporting segment, the statement said, covers 12 areas, including business, education, health, investigative, sports, energy, and nutrition reporting. The commentary segment will feature awards in editorial Cartooning, editorial writing, and informed commentary.
Documentary/drama entries are expected in radio drama, television drama, and television documentary, while the aesthetics category recognises outstanding creativity in newspaper design, media websites, photography, and child-friendly visuals.
Beyond these, DAME will also recognise overall achievements in three key awards: Child-friendly medium of the year, newspaper of the year, and editor of the year.
To guide journalists, DAME has outlined specific principles for each segment. Reporting entries must meet the ABCADER standard, which emphasises accuracy, balance, contextual analysis, depth of research, engaging use of language, and relevance of subject.
Commentary works will be judged on subject, substance, significance, structure, style, and size. Organisers have stressed that entries can only be submitted under one category and that no more than two entries per category are allowed. Series entries will, however, count as a single entry.
Applicants are also required to disclose any published rejoinders, corrections, or retractions linked to their entries in the cover letter. According to the Trustees, this provision safeguards integrity and ensures fairness in the evaluation process.
“An entry can only be entered in ONE category. The series will count as one entry. No one should enter more than two entries in any category,” it stated.
Since its inception in 1992, DAME has remained a benchmark for professionalism and credibility in the Nigerian media industry. With 33 uninterrupted editions to date, the awards have not only celebrated outstanding journalism but also provided capacity-building opportunities through periodic trainings for media professionals.
