The Martha Gellhorn Prize is for journalism at the cutting edge. This prestigious award celebrates journalism that challenges secrecy and mendacity in public affairs — ‘official drivel’, as Gellhorn called it — and raises 'forgotten' issues of public importance, without fear or favour. In the first years of its existence, the Martha Gellhorn Prize sought submissions from the press in the United Kingdom only. This was then broadened to include any suitable work published in English. In the last few years, the award has begun to reflect the growing power of the world wide web and the rise of web-based journalism. Recently the prize went to a US journalist, Dahr Jamail, whose eyewitness reports from Iraq first appeared almost entirely on the web. The award for 2010 was made to Julian Assange on behalf of WikiLeaks.

In the view of the judges, the prize must continue to reflect this trend, and respond to the high quality of much internet journalism. Often such material goes against the grain of news and current affairs fashions. Just as often, it gives a stark demonstration of discrepancies between what governments say they are doing and their actual deeds: a state of affairs that ‘mainstream’ print journalism can be slow to address. The Martha Gellhorn Prize welcomes this new and vital source of information.

Though we will not advertise for them as we have in the past, we shall continue to welcome articles published in print: a special award winner for work in 2010 was Charles Clover of The Financial Times with his reporting on extreme right-wing groups in Russia.

We are now receiving submissions for 2011.

As in previous years, all entries, electronic or printed, must be substantial and credible, and demonstrate a facts-based approach. Blogs and opinion pieces will not be considered and we are unable to take submissions from previous winners.