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It’s been announced that the World Press Photo 2009 jury will be chaired by MaryAnne Golon, consulting photography editor and former director of photography at Time magazine, and that entries for the contest are now being invited from photojournalists around the world.

Joining MaryAnne Golon on the World Press Photo jury will be Akinbode Akinbiyi (Nigeria, photographer, writer and curator), Patrick Baz (France/Lebanon, regional photo-manager, the Middle East, Agence France-Presse), Jonas Bendiksen (Norway, photographer Magnum Photos), Peter Bialobrzeski (Germany, photographer Laif), Erin Elder (Canada, digital media manager The Globe and Mail) Per Folkver (Denmark, photo editor-in-chief Politiken), David Friend (USA, editor of creative development Vanity Fair), Ayperi Karabuda Ecer (Sweden/Turkey, vice president pictures Reuters), Volker Lensch (Germany, head of photo department Stern), Ricardo Mazalan (Argentina, photographer The Associated Press), Arianna Rinaldo (Italy, photo editor D La Repubblica delle Donne and editor-in-chief OjodePez), and Sujong Song (South Korea, freelance photo editor).

Golon has been on the jury before – she was on the 2008 jury that voted Tim Hetherington’s image of a US soldier in the Restrepo bunker in the Korengal valley, Afghanistan (shown above) as the World Press Photo of the Year 2007 - but this is her first time as chair. The World Press Photo jury acts independently of World Press Photo and the organisation has no influence on its decisions.

Click to watch a film of World Press Photo 2009 jury chair MaryAnne Golon explaining how the contest’s judging process works.

All entries will be judged in Amsterdam from 31 January to 12 February 2009 with the results being announced on Friday 13 February 2009. Prizewinners will receive their awards during the annual World Press Photo weekend to be held in Amsterdam at the end of April 2009.

World Press Photo is now inviting photojournalists to enter the 2008 World Press Photo contest and note that all entries must be received by 15 January 2009. The categories are Spot News, General News, People in the News, Sports Action, Sports Features, Contemporary Issues, Daily Life, Portraits, Arts & Entertainment, and Nature. Both single images and photo stories (between two and 12 images) are eligible for entry in any of the categories.

The annual World Press Photo contest is open to all professional press photographers and there is no entry fee. As well as photographers photo agencies, newspapers and magazines from anywhere in the world are invited to submit their best news-related pictures of the previous year.

There are two ways to enter. Firstly you can enter the contest now by pre-paid post/courier by putting images on a CD/DVD. This service is available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish and entries must be received between 1 October 2008 and 15 January 2009. Entry forms and entry instructions can be downloaded from the World Press Photo website.

From 1 December 2008 you will be able to enter the contest online by uploading your files. This service will be available in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish. Note that a stable internet connection is required and that a username and password are needed to log in - both can be requested between 1 December 2008 and 9 January 2009. Previous usernames and passwords are not valid for the 2009 contest. Entries must be submitted between 1 December 2008 and 15 January 2009 and they can be saved and edited online before final submission.

To find out more about entering the 2009 World Press Photo contest just click here.