Bournemouth University’s Centre for the Study of Conflict, Emotion and Social Justice (CESJ) is delighted to announce its partnership with the Kurt Schork Memorial Fund (KSMF).
Founded in memory of American journalist Kurt Schork, who was killed in a military ambush while reporting for the international news agency Reuters in Sierra Leone in 2000, KSMF aims to keep the world aware of the debt owed to brave journalists who engage in courageous reporting of conflict, corruption, injustice and human rights transgressions.
The Director of Centre for the Study of Conflict, Emotion and Social Justice, Professor Karen Fowler-Watt, said: “We are very proud to announce that, from March 2025, our research centre will support, administer and host the annual Kurt Schork Awards in International Journalism. These awards and the courageous, fact-based journalism that they celebrate, are more important now than ever”.
The awards, now in their 24th year, honour the work of freelance journalists, local reporters and news fixers in developing countries or nations in transition. Their work is often poorly paid, fraught with danger and rarely spotlighted.
Recent BA (Hons) Multimedia Journalism graduate Adam Barlow will co-ordinate the awards: "As a BU student, I found practical newsgathering fast-paced and exciting, but I was equally captivated by the discussions on journalism ethics and safety. The Kurt Schork Awards are dedicated to honouring those who put their lives on the line to ensure trustworthy and accurate reporting from dangerous locations.”
Adam hopes that the role will “allow me to make a meaningful contribution to the Centre for the Study of Conflict, Emotion and Social Justice, as the themes of conflict, emotion, and social justice are central to covering stories in high-risk environments."
Speaking for the Kurt Schork Memorial Fund, BU’s Emeritus Professor Stephen Jukes, who worked as a Reuters journalist with Kurt Schork and helped set up the awards, noted that: “At a time of rampant disinformation and seemingly open contempt for mainstream media, upholding the principles of fact-based journalism becomes ever more vital.
"At the Kurt Schork Memorial Fund, we are proud to be able to support through our annual awards local journalists, freelancers and fixers who cherish tried and tested news values that seek out truth and hold power to account.”
The Centre for the Study of Conflict, Emotion and Social Justice will host a webinar for last year’s award winners later this year and has just launched the call for entries for this year’s awards.
