The European Press Prize is an award programme for excellence in journalism across all 47 countries of Europe. It was founded in 2012 by seven European media foundations: The Guardian Foundation,
Thomson Reuters Foundation
Thomson Reuters Foundation is a London-based charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, a Canadian news conglomerate. The Foundation is registered as a charity in the United States and United Kingdom and is headquartered in Canary Wharf, London.
Anton ...
Media Development Investment Fund
Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF), formerly Media Development Loan Fund, is a New York-registered non-profit 501(c)(3) organization and mission-driven investment fund that provides low-cost financing to independent news and information busin ...
, Vereniging Veronica and Stichting Democratie en Media. In 2015, The Irish Times Trust Limited joined as a member organisation, and
Agora SA
Agora Spółka Akcyjna (Agora SA) is a Polish media company. Agora and ''Gazeta Wyborcza'' (''The'' ''Electoral Gazette'') were created on the eve of the parliamentary elections in 1989. ''Gazeta Wyborcza'' became the first independent newspape ...
followed two years later. In 2020, the organisation Luminate became a member.
The prizes are awarded each year in five different categories during the European Press Prize Ceremony.
The first ceremony was at
De Balie
De Balie is a Dutch organization that produces independent journalistic programs about art, culture and politics. De Balie is located at Kleine-Gartmanplantsoen 10, near Leidseplein in Amsterdam.
History
When the 19th century building of the ...
in Amsterdam in 2013, the 2014 awards were given at the
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency was esta ...
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
De Balie is a Dutch organization that produces independent journalistic programs about art, culture and politics. De Balie is located at Kleine-Gartmanplantsoen 10, near Leidseplein in Amsterdam.
History
When the 19th century building of the ...
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
''Gazeta Wyborcza'' (; ''The Electoral Gazette'' in English) is a Polish daily newspaper based in Warsaw, Poland. It is the first Polish daily newspaper after the era of " real socialism" and one of Poland's newspapers of record, covering the ...
. As the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
prohibited a live ceremony, the winners of the 2020 and the 2021 edition were announced online.
The organisation is based in Amsterdam.
Jury
The jury chooses each winner from a shortlist, selected out of all of the submitted work by the preparatory committee. Each of the award categories has a maximum of six nominees on the shortlist.
Currently, the panel of judges is composed of:
* (chair)
Alan Rusbridger
Alan Charles Rusbridger (born 29 December 1953) is a British journalist, who was formerly editor-in-chief of ''The Guardian'' and then principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.
Rusbridger became editor-in-chief of ''The Guardian'' in 1995, havi ...
, former editor-in-chief of The Guardian
*
Sylvie Kauffmann
Sylvie Kauffmann (born 30 October 1955) is a French journalist for Agence France-Presse (AFP) and the newspaper ''Le Monde''. She worked for AFP in France in 1979 and as a foreign correspondent from 1980 to 1988. Kauffmann joined ''Le Monde'' as ...
, former editor-in-chief of
Le Monde
''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
and also board member of the
Global Editors Network
The Global Editors Network (GEN) was an international association of over 6,000 editors-in-chief and media executives with the mission of fostering digital innovation in newsrooms all over the world. GEN had three main programmes: Editors Lab, t ...
Der Standard
''Der Standard'' is an Austrian daily newspaper published in Vienna.
History and profile
''Der Standard'' was founded by Oscar Bronner as a financial newspaper and published its first edition on 19 October 1988. German media company Axel Sprin ...
* Juan Luis Sánchez, co-founder and deputy director of Eldiario.es
* Sheila Sitalsing, freelance columnist for De Volkskrant and the Heldring Prize winner for best columnist in the Netherlands
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
*
Yevgenia Albats
Yevgenia Markovna Albats (russian: Евге́ния Ма́рковна Альба́ц, born 5 September 1958The New Times
Awards
The European Press Prize is given in four categories. A fifth 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".
* 2014: Steve Stecklow, Babak Dehghanpisheh and Yeganeh Torbati,
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency was esta ...
, UK, "The Assets of the Ayatollah";
* 2015: , El País, Spain, "How to produce dead guerillas";
* 2016: , Revue XXI, France, "Those Who have been Raped raise your hand";
* 2017: Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia, for their series of articles on corruption and organized crime;
* 2018: and ,
Le Monde
''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
Bellingcat
Bellingcat (stylised as bellngcat) is a Netherlands-based investigative journalism group that specialises in fact-checking and open-source intelligence (OSINT). It was founded by British journalist and former blogger Eliot Higgins in July 20 ...
, United Kingdom, "Unmasking the Salisbury Poisoning Suspects: A Four-Part Investigation";
* 2020: Annemarte Moland, Even Kjølleberg and Ruben Solvang,
NRK
NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the largest ...
, Norway, "Trigger Warning";
*2021: Roman Anin, Alesya Marohovskaya, Irina Dolinina, Dmitry Velikovsky, Roman Shleynov, Sonya Savina, Olesya Shmagun and Denis Dmitriev, IStories, Russia, "Kirill and Katya: Love, offshores, and administrative resources. How marrying Putin's daughter gave Kirill Shamalov a world of opportunity."
Distinguished Reporting Award
This award is given for "exceptional reporting, telling a story in the best possible way". Until 2017, the category was called Distinguished Writing Award:
* 2014: Sergey Khazov, The New Times magazine, Russia, "The Man in Orange", "Vietnam Town" and "Forbidden Islam";
* 2015: Elena Kostyuchenko, Novaya Gazeta, Russia, "Your husband voluntarily went under fire";
* 2016: , Duzy Format (
Gazeta Wyborcza
''Gazeta Wyborcza'' (; ''The Electoral Gazette'' in English) is a Polish daily newspaper based in Warsaw, Poland. It is the first Polish daily newspaper after the era of " real socialism" and one of Poland's newspapers of record, covering the ...
), Poland, "The Fear-Sick Ward";
* 2017: Dialika Neufeld, Der Spiegel, Germany, "Step-uncle Sam"; Felix Hutt, Stern, Germany, "71 Lives".
In 2018 the category was renamed Distinguished Reporting Award.
* 2018:
Michael Obert
Michael Obert (born 1966) is a German book author and journalist who has been compared with the likes of Bruce Chatwin, Jon Krakauer and Ryszard Kapuściński. His debut movie ''Song from the Forest'' was honored with the Award for Best Feature-L ...
, Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, Germany, "The human catcher";
* 2019: Katrin Kuntz, Marian Blasberg and Christoph Scheuermann, Der Spiegel, Germany, "Fifty-Six Days of Separation";
* 2020: Isobel Cockerell, Coda Story, Georgia, "The Uyghur women fighting China’s surveillance state";
*2021: Janusz Schwertner, Onet, Poland, "Love in the time of plague."
Opinion Award
Until 2017, the Commentator Award was given for quality commentary and opinionated journalism.
* 2013: Nikos Chrysoloras, Kathimerini, Greece, "Greece must remain in the Eurozone";
* 2014:
Boris Dežulović
Boris Dežulović (born 20 November 1964) is a Croatian journalist, writer and columnist, best known as one of the founders of the now defunct satirical magazine ''Feral Tribune''.
Biography
Dežulović studied art history at the University of S ...
,
Globus
Globus is Latin for ''sphere'' or ''globe''. It may also refer to:
Business
* Globus Medical, a medical device company in Audubon, PA
* Globus (clothing retailer), an Indian clothing retail store
* Globus (company), a Swiss department store c ...
, Croatia, "Vukovar: a Life-Size Monument to the Dead City";
* 2015:
Nick Cohen
Nicholas Cohen (born 1961) is a British journalist, author and political commentator. He was a columnist for '' The Observer'' and a blogger for '' The Spectator''. Following accusations of sexual harassment, he left The Observer in 2022 and be ...
,
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
, United Kingdom, "The Cowardice of Nigel Farage";
* 2016: Gideon Rachman,
Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...
, United Kingdom, "Gideon Rachman Commentary";
* 2017:
Fintan O'Toole
Fintan O'Toole (born 16 February 1958) is a polemicist, literary editor, journalist and drama critic for ''The Irish Times'', for which he has written since 1988. O'Toole was drama critic for the '' New York Daily News'' from 1997 to 2001 and ...
,
The Irish Times
''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...
, Ireland, The Observer and The Guardian, United Kingdom, for his Brexit columns.
Since 2018, the Opinion Award is given for best commentator or remarkable interpretation:
* 2018: ,
Al Jazeera Balkans
Al Jazeera Balkans (AJB) is an international news television station headquartered in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina aimed at the media markets of the countries that used to be constituent units of SFR Yugoslavia. It is part of the Al Jazee ...
, Bosnia and Herzegovina, "The third shooting of the boy Petar from Konjic";
* 2019: , The Guardian, United Kingdom, "The end of Atlanticism: had Trump killed the ideology that won the cold war?";
* 2020: , SME, Slovakia, "How We Stopped Being Comrades";
*2021: Iván Zsolt Nagy, HVG.hu, Hungary, "When Trianon Hurts Differently."
Innovation Award
This category awards journalists for their inventive or groundbreaking way of storytelling.
* 2013: Paul Lewis (journalist), The Guardian, "Reading the Riots";
* 2014: , Linn Kongsli Hillestad and ,
Dagbladet
''Dagbladet'' (lit.: ''The Daily Magazine'') is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally ''Dagbladet'' is considered the main liberal newspa ...
, Norway, "Null CTRL";
* 2015: The Migrants’ Files team, The Migrants’ Files, Italy Switzerland, France, Sweden, Spain and Greece, "The Migrants’ Files: Surveying migrants’ deaths at Europe's door";
* 2016: Raquel Moleiro, Hugo Franco and Joana Beleza, Newspaper Expresso, Portugal, "Killing and Dying for Allah - Five Portuguese Members of Islamic State";
* 2017: , Bellingcat, The Netherlands, "The Turkish Coup through the Eyes of its Plotters";
* 2018: Megan Lucero, Maeve McClenaghan, Gareth Davies, Charles Boutaud, Kirsty Styles, for their organisation Bureau Local;
* 2019: Guillermo Abril and , Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, Germany and El País semanal, Spain, "Palmyra, the other side";
* 2020: Decât o Revistă team, Decât o Revistă, Romania, "How DoR organized an all-team pop-up newsroom in Transylvania";
*2021: Maldita.es team, Maldita.es, Spain, "Maldita.es' WhatsApp Chatbot to thrive a fact-checking operation on disinformation."
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.
* 2014:
Alan Rusbridger
Alan Charles Rusbridger (born 29 December 1953) is a British journalist, who was formerly editor-in-chief of ''The Guardian'' and then principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.
Rusbridger became editor-in-chief of ''The Guardian'' in 1995, havi ...
, The Guardian, United Kingdom;
Yavuz Baydar
Yavuz Baydar is the Editor-in-Chief of Ahval, an online news site published in English, Turkish and Arabic. Baydar is a Turkish journalist, blogger and an activist for media freedom and independence.
Baydar has lived outside Turkey since the 20 ...
, by censored media, Turkey;
* 2015: Paul Radu, Drew Sullivan, Miranda Patrucić, et al. for their organisation The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project;
* 2016: Gert van Langendonck, NRC, The Netherlands, "Off to Europe"; Amrai Coen and Henning Sussebach, Die Zeit, Germany, "In the Promised Land"; Anders Fjellberg and Tomm W. Chriistiansen, Dagbladet, Norway, "The Wetsuitman";
* 2017: Irina Tacu, Ana Maria Ciobanu, Andreea Giuclea, Christian Lupșa and Oana Sandu, Decât o Revistă, Romania, "Colectiv";
* 2018: Ida Nyegård Espersen,
Jyllands-Posten
''Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten'' (; English: ''The Morning Newspaper "The Jutland Post"''), commonly shortened to ''Jyllands-Posten'' or ''JP'', is a Danish daily broadsheet newspaper. It is based in Aarhus C, Jutland, and with a weekday circula ...
, Denmark, "This crime only requires poverty, internet, and a distant buyer";
* 2019: Forbidden Stories team and partners, for their organisation Forbidden Stories;
* 2020: BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina team, for their reporting on war crimes trials and other transitional justice issues.
*2021: Paying tribute to all brave journalists working in Belarus, represented by the Mediazona Belarus team behind "Brutalised Minsk: how Belarusian police beat protesters."
Changes to categories
The first edition of the Prize involved two categories that were discontinued the following year. The Editing Award went to Ihor Pochynok for his publications in the Ukrainian Newspaper Ekspres. The News Reporting Award went to Orla Borg, Carsten Ellegaard Christensen and Morten Pihl for their piece "Morten Storm", published in Jyllands-Posten.
The Investigative Reporting Award and Special Award have since been added to the categories, as well as the Distinguished Writing Award, which was later named Distinguished Reporting Award. The Commentator Award was later changed to Opinion Award.
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.”