Fisayo Soyombo, founder/editor-in-chief of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), has been longlisted for the 2025 True Story Award.
Now in its fifth year, the award attracted 1,049 applications from around the globe. From these, a longlist of 36 entries has been selected, with three winners to be announced across three categories—research, Storytelling, and Impact — during a ceremony in Bern, Switzerland, in June 2025.
“The quality of the entries was extremely high, which naturally made the choice even more difficult this year than in previous years,” Fiona Leney, one of the jury, said in an announcement by the organisers on Sunday.
Former Africa correspondent Christoph Plate observed, “many exciting entries from the African continent, especially those ones looking for solutions to the problems narrated.”
Fisayo Soyombo got longlisted for the True Story Award for his daring undercover investigation exposing how Nigerians are trafficked to Burkina Faso under the guise of lucrative dollar-paying jobs in companies supposedly manufacturing gold, wrist watches, and necklaces.
His report, which has safeguarded countless Nigerians from falling prey to traffickers, continues to garner praise.
Though published in August, feedback lauding its impact on raising awareness about trafficking in Burkina Faso is still pouring in, with the latest arriving just three weeks ago.
This recognition adds to Soyombo’s illustrious journalism career, which includes his selection as a 2023-24 Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan. The former editor of TheCable, the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), and SaharaReporters has received numerous accolades over the years.
In 2021, he won the Karpoor Chandra Kulish International Award for Excellence in Journalism for his 2019 undercover exposé on the failings of Nigeria’s criminal justice system, a project that saw him voluntarily detained in a police cell for five days and later imprisoned for eight more after being arraigned in court.
READ ALSO: Fisayo Soyombo Thanks Nigerians— ‘You’re Reason My Detention in Nigerian Army Lasted Only Three Days
That same year, he was a finalist for the One World Media International Journalist of the Year award, having previously been longlisted in 2020 before advancing to the three-man shortlist.
In May 2021, Soyombo secured the second prize in the Outstanding Investigation category of the Fetisov Journalism Award, one of the most lucrative prizes in journalism. Earlier, in December 2020, he won the Local Reporter category of the Kurt Schork Awards in International Journalism. This marked his third shortlisting for the prestigious awards, following nods in 2014 and 2016. The Kurt Schork Awards honor courageous reporting on conflict, corruption, and human rights abuses.
Soyombo’s achievements in 2020 alone are staggering, including wins or shortlists for the Fetisov Journalism Awards (Outstanding Investigation category), the West Africa Media Excellence Award (Investigative Reporting category), the WJP Anthony Lewis Prize for Exceptional Rule of Law Journalism, the One World Media Awards (International Journalist of the Year category), and the People Journalism Prize for Africa (PJPA).
His earlier honors include multiple wins at the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting, the African Media Initiative Awards (Maritime Economy category), the Diamond Award for Media Excellence (Investigative Reporting category), the Free Press Awards (Hans Verploeg Newcomer of the Year), and the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Journalism Excellence Awards (Journalist of the Year in Business and Economy Reporting).
A three-time winner of the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting, Soyombo founded the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) in 2020.
The nonprofit organization champions justice, holds the powerful accountable, and amplifies the voices of the marginalized by circumventing bureaucracy and countering propaganda. FIJ began publishing on January 20, 2021.
Despite his accolades, Soyombo’s investigative work has made him a target of the Nigerian state. He has been detained twice this year, with a third arrest reportedly imminent, underscoring the risks he continues to face in his pursuit of the truth.
(FIJ)
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