The African Centre for Media Excellence (ACME), in partnership with the Climate Smart Jobs programme, is pleased to announce the inaugural call for entries for the Institutional Climate Change Reporting Award, a new category within the Uganda National Journalism Awards 2025. This award celebrates and supports media organisations in Uganda that demonstrate exceptional dedication to impactful, inclusive, and sustained climate change reporting.

Purpose: To recognise and support media institutions that show sustained, team-based efforts in reporting on climate change. The award also aims to promote greater awareness and raise the standard of climate change reporting at an institutional level in Uganda, contributing to a deeper understanding of this global challenge and its local impact.

Prize: A monetary grant to support ongoing climate change reporting projects within the winning institution, enabling it to expand and strengthen its work on this important issue.

Recipient: This award is conferred on a media organisation—not an individual—in order to encourage and support team-driven initiatives in climate change journalism. Entries are welcomed from news organisations of all sizes across Uganda.

We now invite entries, open until the deadline of 17th May 2025, showcasing your institution’s exemplary work in climate change journalism. The panel of judges will be seeking evidence of:

  • The consistent production of thorough, evidence-based narratives that clearly articulate climate change issues, their far-reaching impacts on Uganda, and locally relevant solutions.

  • Robust and ongoing collaboration among all team members engaged in climate change reporting, including efforts to ensure inclusion and reflect diverse perspectives and experiences.

  • The resourceful use of innovative formats to reach and engage diverse audiences across Uganda. Judges will look for creative and original approaches that make complex climate change issues relatable, understandable, and actionable for the public.

  • A demonstrated long-term commitment to climate change reporting in the Ugandan context, supported by a consistent track record of dedicated coverage over time.

  • Consistent adherence to the highest journalistic standards, including accuracy, fairness, and editorial independence in all climate change reporting concerning Uganda.

  • Reporting that centres the experiences, voices, and agency of historically marginalised groups most affected by climate change—such as women, youth, persons with disabilities, refugee communities, and low-income rural populations. Judges will seek entries that go beyond token representation to showcase meaningful engagement with these communities and interrogates the power dynamics shaping their vulnerability and resilience.

The announcement of the winner of this new Institutional Climate Change Reporting Award will be made at the prestigious Uganda National Journalism Awards 2025 Gala on 28th May 2025 in Kampala.

Submit your entries using this online form, now until the deadline of 17th May 2025.

For inquiries, write to awards[at]acme-ug.org.