Washington, D.C., January 15, 2010 — The 2010 Daniel Pearl Awards competition, which honors the world’s best cross-border investigative journalism, has extended its deadline by two weeks. Entries must be postmarked no later than January 31.

The awards are granted by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a project of the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C.

Formerly the ICIJ Awards, the prizes were renamed in 2008 in honor of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was slain by militants in Pakistan in 2002.

Held biennially, the competition is open to any professional journalist or team of journalists of any nationality working in any medium. To be eligible, the investigation — either a single work or a single-subject series — must involve reporting in at least two countries on a topic of world significance. A five-member jury of international journalists will select the winners.

Two $5,000 first-place prizes will be awarded, one to a U.S.-based reporter or news outlet, and another to a non-U.S.-based journalist or news outlet. Five additional finalists will each receive $1,000 prizes.

The awards are unique among journalism prizes in that they specifically honor cross-border investigative reporting. Past winners have included a TV4 Sweden investigation of Russian overfishing in the Barents Sea, a South African Broadcasting expose of an Anglican bishop accused of conspiring with the Rwandan government to kill Tutsis, and a New York Times series on deadly Chinese counterfeit drugs. The last Pearl Awards attracted 86 entries from 24 countries, involving reporting in more than 60 countries.

The awards will be presented at the 6th Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, in April 2010.

There is no entry fee. For further information and awards criteria, please visit ICIJ’s Daniel Pearl Awards website.