# European Press Prize

The European Press Prize is a non-profit foundation based in the Netherlands. It runs a programme of journalism awards of the same name for journalists from 46 countries, the Council of Europe, Belarus and Russia. As part of the programme, a jury awards prizes in five categories each year. These are Distinguished Reporting, Innovation, Investigative Reporting, Migration Journalism and Public Discourse. In addition, the jury also awards a special prize for outstanding journalism that transcends categories and disciplines.

## History

The European Press Prize was founded in 2012 by seven European media foundations: The Guardian Foundation, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Jyllands-Posten Foundation, Politiken Foundation, Media Development Investment Fund, Vereniging Veronica and Stichting Democratie en Media. In 2015, The Irish Times Trust Limited joined as a member organisation, and Agora SA followed two years later. In 2020, the philanthropic organisation Luminate became a member.
The first ceremony was at De Balie in Amsterdam in 2013, the 2014 awards were given at the Reuters headquarters in London, and in 2015 the European Press Prize visited the JP/Politiken headquarters in Copenhagen. The 2016 awards were presented in Prague with the help of the Forum2000 team. For the fifth anniversary in 2017, the ceremony was held in founding place De Balie in Amsterdam again. In 2018 it took place in Budapest at the Open Archives Society. In 2019 the prizes were awarded in Warsaw at the headquarters of Gazeta Wyborcza. As the COVID-19 pandemic prohibited a live ceremony, the winners of the 2020 and the 2021 edition were announced online.
The organisation is based in Amsterdam.

## Jury

Each year, a preparatory committee selects a shortlist, which is published on the European Press Prize website. A panel of judges then selects the winners of the five categories from this list. The jury also decides who will receive the special prize. The winners are usually announced at the Awards Ceremony in May or June.
Currently, the panel of judges is composed of:
* (chair) Alan Rusbridger, former editor-in-chief of The Guardian
* Alexandra Föderl-Schmid, deputy editor of the Süddeutsche Zeitung
* Can Dündar, Turkish journalist, documentary filmmaker and book author
* Sheila Sitalsing [nl; cy], freelance columnist for De Volkskrant
* Clara Jiménez Cruz [es; eu], co-founder and CEO of Maldita.es, a Spanish foundation fighting disinformation
From 2013 until 2020:
* (chair) Sir Harold Evans, editor-at-large of Thomson Reuters and the former editor of the Sunday Times
* Jørgen Ejbol, chairman of the Jyllands-Posten Foundation

## Awards

The European Press Prize is given in five categories. A sixth special award chosen by the jury is optional. Each prize is worth €10,000.

### Investigative Reporting Award

This award is given for "discovering and revealing facts, exposing hidden news to the public".
| Year | Award Winner | Publication |
| 2024 | Sara Manisera, Daniela Sala:"Iraq Without Water: The Cost of Oil to Italy" | Irpi Media, Italy |
| 2023 | Alexander Nabert, Christina Brause, Bryan Bender, Nick Robyns-Early: "Death Weapons: Inside a Teenage Terrorist Network" | Welt am Sonntag, Germany |
| 2022 | Paavo Teittinen, Klaus Welp (pictures): "The investigation is closed" | Helsingin Sanomat, Finland |
| 2021 | Roman Anin, Alesya Marohovskaya, Irina Dolinina, Dmitry Velikovsky, Roman Shleynov, Sonya Savina, Olesya Shmagun and Denis Dmitriev: "Kirill and Katya: Love, offshores, and administrative resources. How marrying Putin's daughter gave Kirill Shamalov a world of opportunity" | IStories, Russia |
| 2020 | Annemarte Moland, Even Kjølleberg and Ruben Solvang: "Trigger Warning" | NRK, Norway |
| 2019 | Christo Grozev, Roman Dobrokhotov: "Unmasking the Salisbury Poisoning Suspects: A Four-Part Investigation" | Bellingcat, United Kingdom |
| 2018 | Stéphane Foucart [fr] and Stéphane Horel [fr]: "Monsanto Papers" | Le Monde, France |
| 2017 | Series of articles on corruption and organized crime | Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia, Serbia |
| 2016 | Marion Quillard [fr]: "Those Who have been Raped raise your hand" | Revue XXI, France |
| 2015 | Ander Izagirre [es]: "How to produce dead guerillas" | El País, Spain |
| 2014 | Steve Stecklow, Babak Dehghanpisheh and Yeganeh Torbati: "The Assets of the Ayatollah" | Reuters, UK |

### Distinguished Reporting Award

This award honors "exceptional reporting, telling a story in the best possible way". Until 2017, the category was called Distinguished Writing Award. In 2018 the category was renamed Distinguished Reporting Award.
| Year | Award Winner | Publication |
| 2024 | Léa Polverini, Robin Tutenges:"Kazakhstan-Xinjiang, the Border of Tears" | Slate.fr, France |
| 2023 | Johannes Böhme: "The travelling tribunal" | Die Zeit, Germany |
| 2022 | Bastian Berbner, John Goetz: "What Guantánamo made of them" | Die Zeit, Germany |
| 2021 | Janusz Schwertner: "Love in the time of plague" | Onet, Poland |
| 2020 | Isobel Cockerell: "The Uyghur women fighting China’s surveillance state" | Coda Story, Georgia |
| 2019 | Katrin Kuntz, Marian Blasberg and Christoph Scheuermann: "Fifty-Six Days of Separation" | Der Spiegel, Germany |
| 2018 | Michael Obert: "The human catcher" | Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, Germany |
| 2017 | Dialika Neufeld: "Step-uncle Sam" | Der Spiegel, Germany |
| 2016 | Justyna Kopińska [pl]: "The Fear-Sick Ward" | Duzy Format (Gazeta Wyborcza), Poland |
| 2015 | Elena Kostyuchenko: "Your husband voluntarily went under fire" | Novaya Gazeta, Russia |
| 2014 | Sergey Khazov: "The Man in Orange", "Vietnam Town" and "Forbidden Islam" | The New Times magazine, Russia |

### Public Discourse Award

Until 2017, the Commentator Award was given for quality commentary and opinionated journalism. Since 2018, the Opinion Award is given for best commentator or remarkable interpretation.
| Year | Award Winner | Publication |
| 2024 | Nataša Markovič:"We Have Betrayed a Generation" | Preiskovalno.si, Media 24, Slovenia |
| 2023 | Alla Konstantinova: "'She lost consciousness as it was happening and she’s actually grateful she did.'" What we know about the rapes perpetrated in Ukraine by Russian soldiers | Mediazona, Russia |
| 2022 | Peter Pomerantsev: "Memory in the age of impunity" | Coda Story, Georgia |
| 2021 | Iván Zsolt Nagy: "When Trianon Hurts Differently" | HVG.hu, Hungary |
| 2020 | Beata Balogová [d], "How We Stopped Being Comrades" | SME, Slovakia |
| 2019 | Madeleine Schwartz [d]: "The end of Atlanticism: had Trump killed the ideology that won the cold war?" | The Guardian, United Kingdom |
| 2018 | Dragan Bursać [sh]: "The third shooting of the boy Petar from Konjic" | Al Jazeera Balkans, Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| 2017 | Fintan O'Toole for his Brexit columns | The Observer and The Guardian, United Kingdom |
| 2017 | Gideon Rachman for his comments | Financial Times, United Kingdom |
| 2015 | Nick Cohen: "The Cowardice of Nigel Farage" | The Observer, United Kingdom |
| 2014 | Boris Dežulović: "Vukovar: a Life-Size Monument to the Dead City" | Globus, Croatia |
| 2013 | Nikos Chrysoloras: "Greece must remain in the Eurozone" | Kathimerini, Greece |

### Innovation Award

This category awards journalists for their inventive or groundbreaking way of storytelling.
| Year | Award Winner | Publication |
| 2024 | Vitaly Soldatskikh, Ekaterina Reznikova, Roman Badanin, Katya Arenina, Boris Dubakh:"Lapdogs of War: A Guide to Russia's Wartime Oligarchs" | Proekt, Russia |
| 2023 | Juliette Garside, Simon Goodley, Jasper Jolly, Kalyeena Makortoff, Antonio Baquero, Lara Dihmis, Alex Dziadosz, Jared Ferrie, Brian Fitzpatrick, Kevin Hall, Ilya Lozovsky, Eli Moskowitz, Will Neal, Stelios Orphanides, Miranda Patrucic, Olesya Shmagun, Graham Stack, Tom Stocks, Drew Sullivan, Julia Wallace, Jonny Wrate, Jan Strozyk, Lara Dihmis, Misha Gagarin, Karina Shedrofsky, Alina Tsogoeva, Ivana Jeremić, Olena LaFoy, Bojana Pavlović, Dima Stoianov, Romina Colman, Ilia Donskikh, Nathan Jaccard, James O’Brien, Edin Pašović, Mark Nightingale: "Russian Asset Tracker" | OCCRP, The Guardian, Anti-Corruption Data Collective, Bird.bg, Delfi Estonia, Follow the Money, Forbes, Frontstory.pl, infoLibre, Inside Story, Investigative Center of Jan Kuciak, Investigace.cz, IrpiMedia, MANS, Miami Herald, Le Monde, NDR, Oštro, profil, Re:Baltica, Reporter.lu, Siena.lt, SVT, Tamedia, De Tijd, Transparency International UK |
| 2022 | Jose Miguel Calatayud, Adriana Homolova, Hendrik Lehmann, Brigitte Alfter, David Meidinger, Benedikt Brandhofer, Nikolas Zöller, Alexandra Siebenhofer, Steven Vanden Bussche, Gaby Khazalová, Bo Elkjær, Alexander Abdelilah, Sotiris Sideris, Lois Kapila, Alice Facchini, Peter Hendriks, Steinar Rostad Breivik, Micael Pereira, Peter Sabo, Manuel Gabarre, Christian Zeier, Catherine McShane, Nikolas Leontopoulos, Alexia Barakou, Moritz Wienert, Benedikt Hebeisen, Christoph Trautvetter, Elisabeth Lind, Jakub Nakládal, Mathieu Périsse, Anna Thewalt, Helena Wittlich, Sinan Recber, Sidney Gennies, Manuel Kostrzynski, Lorenzo Bagnoli, Hans Jordheim, Sara Pinho: "Cities for Rent" | Arena for Journalism in Europe, ORF, Apache, Deník Referendum, Mediapart, Der Tagesspiegel, AthensLive, Reporters United, Dublin Inquirer, IrpiMedia, E24, Expresso, elDiario.es, Reflekt, Republik, Ctxt.es, Follow The Money |
| 2021 | Maldita.es' WhatsApp Chatbot to thrive a fact-checking operation on disinformation | Maldita.es, Spain |
| 2020 | How Decât o Revistă organized an all-team pop-up newsroom in Transylvania | Decât o Revistă, Romania |
| 2019 | Guillermo Abril and Carlos Spottorno [fr], "Palmyra, the other side" | Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, Germany; El País, Spain |
| 2018 | Megan Lucero, Maeve McClenaghan, Gareth Davies, Charles Boutaud, Kirsty Styles for their project Bureau Local | Bureau of Investigative Journalism, United Kingdom |
| 2017 | Christiaan Triebert [nl]: "The Turkish Coup through the Eyes of its Plotters" | Bellingcat, The Netherlands |
| 2016 | Raquel Moleiro, Hugo Franco and Joana Beleza: "Killing and Dying for Allah - Five Portuguese Members of Islamic State" | Expresso, Portugal |
| 2015 | Nicolas Kayser-Bril, Jacopo Ottaviani, Sylke Gruhnwald, Jean-Marc Manach, Jens Finnäs, Daniele Grasso, Katerina Stauroula, Alessio Cimarelli, Andrea Nelson Mauro, Alice Kohli: "The Migrant Files: Surveying migrants' deaths at Europe's door" | The Migrants' Files, Italy, Switzerland, France, Sweden, Spain and Greece |
| 2014 | Paul Lewis (journalist): "Reading the Riots" | The Guardian, United Kingdom |

### Migration Journalism Award

This award is honors each your one "acclaimed example of migration journalism". The award was introduced in 2023 with the support of the Robert Bosch Stiftung.
| Year | Award Winner | Publication |
| 2024 | Andrei Popoviciu:"How Europe Outsourced Border Enforcement to Africa" | In These Times, Leonard C. Goodman Institute for Investigative Reporting, International, United States |
| 2023 | Maartje Bakker, César Dezfuli: "The long road to a home in Europe" | De Volkskrant, Netherlands |

### Special Award

The Special Award is optional for the jury and allows them to single out high quality journalism that they think deserves special recognition. This could be awarded to an individual journalist, news organisation or specific piece of journalism.
| Year | Award Winner | Publication |
| 2024 | Tina Xu, Gabriele Cruciata, Eoghan Gilmartin, Danai Maragoudaki, Barbara Matejčić, Leah Pattem, Gabriela Ramirez, Daphne Tolis, Kristiana Ludwig, Ben Heubl, Rachel Oldroyd, Felicity Lawrence, Ashifa Kassam, Lorenzo Tondo, Manisha Ganguly, Pamela Duncan:"1000 Lives, 0 Names: The Border Graves Investigation — How the EU is Failing Migrants' Last Rights" | The Guardian, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Unbias the News, Solomon, Balkan Insight, El Diario, l'Espresso, Telegram, Lithuanian Radio Television, Efsyn.gr, Documento [el], Lesvosnews, Kathimerini, News247, Avgi, Deutsche Welle, Al Jazeera, Jutarnji List, Tportal, Index, Novi List, Germany, UK, Spain, Greece, Italy, Croatia, Lithuania, Poland |
| 2023 | Anna Myroniuk, Alexander Khrebet: "Suicide missions, abuse, physical threats: International Legion fighters speak out against leadership’s misconduct" | The Kyiv Independent, Ukraine |
| 2022 | Lara Bonilla, Ricard Marfà, Idoia Longan: "Woman's body, man's medicine" | Diari ARA, Spain |
| 2021 | Paying tribute to all brave journalists working in Belarus | |
| 2020 | BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina team, for their reporting on war crimes trials and other transitional justice issues | BIRN, Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| 2019 | Forbidden Stories team and partners, for their organisation Forbidden Stories | |
| 2018 | Ida Nyegård Espersen: "This crime only requires poverty, internet, and a distant buyer" | Jyllands-Posten, Denmark |
| 2017 | Irina Tacu, Ana Maria Ciobanu, Andreea Giuclea, Christian Lupșa and Oana Sandu: "Colectiv" | Decât o Revistă, Romania |
| 2016 | Gert van Langendonck: "Off to Europe" | NRC, The Netherlands |
| 2016 | Amrai Coen and Henning Sussebach: "In the Promised Land" | Die Zeit, Germany |
| 2016 | Anders Fjellberg and Tomm W. Chriistiansen: "The Wetsuitman" | Dagbladet, Norway |
| 2015 | Paul Radu, Drew Sullivan, Miranda Patrucić, et al. for their organisation The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project | Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| 2014 | Alan Rusbridger | The Guardian, United Kingdom |
| 2014 | Yavuz Baydar | censored media, Turkey |

## European Cartoon Award

In 2019, the European Cartoon Award was founded in cooperation with Studio Europa Maastricht. This new Award aims to promote and encourage European cartoonists, while preserving the endangered form of art and great asset to journalism. The winner of the first edition was the French cartoonist and illustrator Anne Derenne for her cartoon “Jenga – the earth’s sixth mass distinction.”