SAJA Journalism Awards

The application instructions below no longer reflect current information, and have been archived here for informational purposes.  We expect to open up submissions for the 2026 awards in late July. Please check back then for more details.

Learn more about our past winners.

We are excited to announce that SAJA is now accepting submissions through Monday, Sept. 8, 2025 for journalism awards in a variety of categories, including outstanding reporting on arts, culture and lifestyle; business news; and international coverage. We’re also giving out the Daniel Pearl award for outstanding investigative reporting.  In addition, we have two awards on any subject by South Journalists only, the General Excellence Award and reporting on any subject by a South Asian student.

The SAJA awards help further our mission of supporting newsroom diversity and promoting coverage of issues related to South Asia worldwide.

Winners will be celebrated at the SAJA Gala & Awards on Friday, October 10, 2025, part of the SAJA Conference that weekend.

If you have any questions, please email the Chair of the SAJA Awards, Pia Sarkar at piasarkar@gmail.com.

To submit your entry, please go to: https://saja.awardsplatform.com/

Eligibility Criteria

The submitted piece(s) of work must have: 

• Appeared in a U.S. or Canadian news outlet between January 1, 2024, and December 31, 2024. Work published in a media outlet based in South Asia is not eligible for entry. 

• Most awards require the submissions focus on subjects about one or more than one South Asian countries or the South Asian worldwide diaspora. Read the category descriptions below, carefully.  One award will recognize broader work produced by journalists and student journalists of South Asian backgrounds. 

• Branded content is not eligible for an award -- submissions must be examples of independent journalism. 

Other criteria: 

• Awards are open to all US and Canadian media: national newspapers/TV channels, local/regional newspapers/TV channels, news and features websites, and other online platforms that DO NOT include personal or professional blogs. 

• Freelancers and journalists employed by newsrooms are both eligible to apply by submitting a story published in a North American publication. 

• Individuals may submit entries or organizations may enter the contest on behalf of their journalists. 

• Organizations and individuals can make multiple entries. BUT the same entry/story cannot be submitted in different categories. 

• Former SAJA board members are eligible to apply but they must not have served on the board since the past two years (2023-2024). 

• The countries that we consider as part of "South Asia" are India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives, Bhutan and Afghanistan. 

• No award will be presented in any category that does not receive a minimum of 3 quality submissions. 

FEES: SAJA levies a non-refundable application fee to help cover some of the costs of the awards process. The fee is $80 per entry for companies who are making submissions on behalf of employees, $25 per entry for individual journalists submitting on behalf of themselves and $15 per entry for students. 

JUDGING:

SAJA will select a pool of volunteer judges for each award, who will rate each submission on a number of factors including:  

• News Value: insight, informative qualities and durability. 

• Originality and/or Exclusivity: enterprise and discovery. 

• Reportorial Quality: thoroughness and balance. 

• Writing and Production Quality (where applicable): clarity in dealing with description, concepts, findings and complex issues. 

Awards Categories

SAJA recognizes journalism in a number of different categories. We do not accept opinion pieces. All media formats are allowed, though video or audio submissions must not be longer than 30 minutes. The reporting can be a single piece or a series on a specific topic. Submissions must be limited to three pieces of work per entry. 

Here is a full list of the categories:

1. The Daniel Pearl Award 
Established in honor of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was killed while reporting in Pakistan, this award recognizes outstanding investigative reporting about South Asia that exhibits courage and exposes important public issues. 

2. Outstanding Business Reporting Award 
This award recognizes outstanding news, feature or explanatory reporting in business, technology and economics about South Asia, or the worldwide South Asian diaspora. 

3. Outstanding Arts, Culture, and Lifestyle Reporting Award
This award recognizes outstanding reporting about arts, culture or lifestyle about South Asia, or the worldwide South Asian diaspora. 

4. Outstanding International Reporting Award 
This award recognizes outstanding international reporting by a South Asian journalist. It is open to both U.S. and non-U.S. based journalists, but the bulk of the reporting must be conducted outside of the U.S. or Canada. 

5. General Excellence Award  
This award recognizes outstanding reporting on any subject by a South Asian journalist in the U.S. or Canada. Entries should showcase distinguished work by a single journalist across categories, including topic (health, technology, etc.) and type (investigative, breaking news, explanatory, audio, video, data, live events, etc.) 

6. Outstanding story on any subject by a South Asian student in the U.S. or Canada
This award recognizes outstanding reporting on any subject by a South Asian student studying in North America. Reporting can be in any field or medium and can include reported opinion pieces or essays. This category is for students of South Asian origin studying in North America.