New Telegraph is Nigeria’s best investigative newspaper

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…Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism

• MD/Editor-in-Chief commends winner, says best yet to come

New Telegraph’s entry in this year’s edition for the best investigative report, organised by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism for Nigeria’s media industry, has been adjudged the best, confirming the newspaper’s position as a foremost in-vestigative medium with a robust foray in politics and business reporting.
The winning entry, a three-part expose on how the Police Special Anti- Robbery Squad (SARS) kill suspected robbers extra-judicially, was written by Ms Juliana Francis, Crime Editor, who was adjudged the print Investigative Journalist of the Year, as well as the overall winner of the industry’s most important investigative journalism prize.

Speaking on the award, an elated Managing Director/ Editor-in-Chief of New Telegraph, Mr. Eric Osagie, assured teeming readers of the newspaper, on behalf of management and Board of Editors, that the quality of reporting that led to one of its reporters being adjudged overall winner of this year’s Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Journalism will not only be sustained, but further improved upon in the coming years.
Mr. Osagie noted that this award was won by New Telegraph less than a year after the newspaper hit the newsstands, adding that this is a testament to the high standards being adhered to by the newspaper. “It is a testimony to resilience, hard work and doggedness.
The best is yet to come. New Telegraph has not only come to stay, but has come to take its rightful place in the media industry, and that place is at the topmost rung,” he said. According to him, the award also reinforces the uniqueness of the newspaper’s offering which made it to successfully secure the partnership of the highly reputable New York Times, in a deal that is first of its kind in Africa.
The deal, which was activated on October 6, entails the New Telegraph publishing a 12-page insert of the International New York Times, produced by Chief Correspondents and Editors of NYT, every Monday for the next three years. Osagie commended the award winner for her diligence and professionalism, saying that the honour didn’t come as a surprise, given that she had always committed herself to hard work and excellence, right from The Sun Publishing Company Limited, where she cut her journalism teeth and at the Nigerian Compass and Daily Newswatch, where she also practised. Ms Francis studied English at the University of Ilorin, and graduated in the year 2000.
She started her work career as a classroom teacher during her Youth Service in Jigawa State, and later joined The Sun Publishing Company Limited where she was a Staff Writer between year 2002 and 2008. She later moved to the Nigerian Compass where she was Deputy Editor (Crime) between 2008 and 2012. From there, she moved to the Daily Newswatch newspaper, before joining New Telegraph in 2013 as Crime Editor.