Eligibility
These are the Competition Rules for participation in the BBC Young Reporter Competition 2024.
The competition is open to all UK residents (including residents of the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man) aged between 11 and 18 years old on the closing date of Sunday 24 March 2024, except BBC or BBC Group employees, their close relatives or anyone connected with the competition, or the particular prize being offered.
Proof of age, identity and eligibility may be required. The BBC reserves the right to disqualify any entrant or winner who breaches these rules. The BBC reserves the right to request proof of age, as well as a parent's or guardian's consent.
How to enter
Entries may be submitted by an individual or a group. But only ONE entry is allowed per individual or group. In the event of multiple entries being submitted by the same person or group, the judges reserve the right to choose which entry they feel is the strongest to put forward to shortlisting rounds and disregard any other entries submitted by this person or group.
Entries will only be considered when submitted via the online mechanism. Only entries in English will be considered unless you are submitting from Wales where entries in Welsh are also permitted. For the purposes of judging, Welsh entries will be translated into English. No other method of entry is permitted (this includes email or post).
Entries can be submitted as written or an audio or video recording.
Written entries should be no more than 350 words in length. Videos or audio recordings should not be over three minutes. Any excess entry will be disregarded so please ensure your entry does not run over the maximum length.
Each entry must also include, in no more than 350 words, an outline why you want to share your story with a BBC audience and what makes your perspective on the story so unique.
The entry submission must be the entrant's own original work and not defame nor breach any copyright or contain anything that could be deemed offensive or inappropriate. Any material that is deemed unsuitable will be removed from the judging process and disqualified. Entrants should keep a copy as no entries will be returned.
The submission must be accompanied by all the information requested via the online submission process. Any entry with missing information will not be a valid entry and will not progress in the competition.
Parental permission is needed before young people enter the competition. If entries are received without parent/guardian permission, the BBC will contact the entrant and request parental permission before proceeding with any further shortlisting process. If this is not provided on request, the entry will be disqualified.
Any stories which raise concerns about a person's safety or welfare may be referred to relevant support services or authorities to investigate. For safeguarding, these entries may also be withdrawn from the competition process.
The competition will open on Monday 29 January 2024. Entries must be received by the BBC no later than 22:59:59 on Sunday 24 March 2024. Late, incomplete, illegible or inaudible entries will be disqualified. The BBC cannot take any responsibility for any technical failure or malfunction, which may result in any entry being delayed, or not properly registered or recorded.
The BBC acknowledges that the ownership of any intellectual property rights in the entry remains with the entrants, but that by applying each entrant's parent or guardian grants the BBC the non-exclusive right to use or reproduce, free of charge, their entry or part thereof for the purpose of the competition, including publicising the competition in any and all media in perpetuity throughout the world, fulfilling the prize and any associated competition publicity / coverage on any BBC or BBC Group company service, channel or online by the BBC, its subsidiaries or its selected third parties.
Judging criteria
Judging will be completed using the following criteria:
15.1. Editorial merit - strength of story and angle / suitability of story to programme or platform;
15.2. Originality and/or unique perspective; and
15.3. Motivation for telling the story.Judges will also be looking to find a range of diverse stories representing a variety of subjects across the UK and the final selection of stories will reflect this.
Shortlisted stories will be checked out prior to final judging rounds. All stories must comply with BBC Editorial Guidelines and be legally sound.
Judging and shortlisting will take place in multiple rounds. The top entries per category from the first round of shortlisting will be contacted and their entries verified. Verification will occur by June 2024. If, after reasonable attempts to make contact, the verification has not occurred, the BBC reserves the right to disregard that entry.
During verification, contact will be made between BBC Young Reporter staff and the parent/guardian of entrants in order to check eligibility and originality of the entry, which may involve speaking to individuals and/or group members involved in the production of the entry. If an entrant or their parent/guardian is unable to be contacted, after reasonable attempts have been made to do so, the BBC reserves the right to offer their place to the next best entrant. Unsuccessful entrants will not be contacted.
Once verification has been completed valid entries will progress to the next round of judging. Judging panels using the same criteria, as detailed above, will shortlist the finalists.
These finalists will then be put forward to the last round of judging, which will be completed by panels of BBC editors and journalists. These judging panels will use the same criteria, as detailed above, to determine the final winners.
National Winners – Three (3) winners will be selected by “national” BBC programmes/platforms from the two age categories, 11-15 years old and 16-18 years old. These “national” winners will be different from the winners selected by BBC Nations and BBC English Regions which are outlined below. Which award area winners are selected for will be made during the judging process and will be at the judges' discretion.
Regional Winners - There will be a total of fifteen (15) “regional” winners. There will be one winner in each of the following BBC Nations and BBC English Regions: Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, North West, North East & Cumbria, Yorkshire (Leeds & Hull), East Midlands, West Midlands, East, South East, South West and South West (Plymouth & Channel Islands) and London.
Welsh Language Winner - There will also be one (1) Welsh language Winner selected by BBC Wales/Cymru.
All Winners will be publicly announced in June 2024 at www.bbc.co.uk/youngreportercompetition and on the BBC Young Reporter website and social media.
Prize
All Winners will get to work with a BBC journalist or production team to make their story for either radio, TV, online or social media, and the story will be broadcast on one of these platforms by the BBC in 2024. The programme/platform will be based on editorial merit for each story. Individual production and broadcast dates will be agreed with each Winner and the appropriate BBC production team (this is to allow for editorial need to broadcast or make the content at a different time to suit a news agenda/broadcast need). The BBC shall pay reasonable travel expenses for each winner.
In addition all Winners will receive a BBC Young Reporter “goodie bag” pack.
The prizes are non-exchangeable, non-transferable, and are not redeemable for cash or other prizes.
General
The BBC's and the judges' decision is final. No correspondence relating to the competition will be entered into.
Entrants will be expected to take part in post-competition broadcast and online or print publicity for the BBC. Names of the Winners will be made public.
The BBC reserves the right to cancel the competition or change any of these rules at any stage if deemed necessary in its opinion or if circumstances arise outside of its control, and disqualify any entrant who breaches the rules, has acted fraudulently in any way or who has brought the BBC into disrepute (in its sole discretion). Any such changes will be duly communicated. The BBC cannot be held responsible for any unforeseen events relating to the competition having to be cancelled or delayed.
This competition complies with the BBC Code of Conduct for Competitions and Voting, which can be found here.
The BBC, their sub-contractors, subsidiaries and/or agencies cannot accept any responsibility whatsoever for any technical failure or malfunction or any other problem with any server, Internet access, system or otherwise which may result in any entry not being properly registered or recorded.
To the extent permitted by law, the BBC will not be liable for any loss or damage (whether such damage or losses were foreseen, foreseeable, known or otherwise) including financial, reputational loss or disappointment.
These terms and conditions are governed by the laws of England and Wales.