The best European journalism: The European Press Prize announces its winners
(Madrid, 2 June 2022) The European Press Prize announces the winners and runners-up of its 2022 edition. This award ceremony is an important milestone, as it marks the 10th anniversary of the birth of the Prize. Also present at the event, as a speaker, was the Ukrainian journalist Olga Rudenko, editor-in-chief at the Kyiv Independent.
A collection of stories to make sense of our times
This year’s stories tackle topics that are crucial for our cultural space, and for Europe’s economical and democratic systems: the financialization of the housing market; the police response to human trafficking; the gender bias in the field of medicine; the personal struggle of a victim of torture facing his perpetrator; and the collapse of overarching narratives that helped make sense of the reality around us.
Cities for Rent: Investigating corporate landlords across Europe, winner of the Innovation Award, explores the intricate world of corporate housing, dissecting the financialization system that turned housing into one of the most profitable markets – at the expense of the citizens.
The investigation is closed, winner of the Investigative Reporting Award, exposes serious, widespread irregularities and misconduct in how the Finnish police deal with human trafficking cases.
The Distinguished Reporting Award went instead to What Guantánamo made of them, the moving story of a victim of torture in the American prison of Guantánamo, Mohamedou, facing his torturer to seek closure and to find answers to his many questions.
The Public Discourse Award, previously the Opinion Award, was given to Memory in the age of impunity, a compelling piece that explores why certain stories fail to capture our attention. The collapse of connected storylines calls for a rethinking of what binds us, from Belarus to the Philippines.
Last but not least, the Special Award was assigned by the Panel of Judges to Woman’s body, man’s medicine, which investigates the reasons for the lack of knowledge on women’s bodies, connecting it to gender inequality in medical research.
Ten years supporting and celebrating journalism
The European Press Prize was born ten years ago, in Amsterdam, thanks to the commitment of seven independent European foundations, with the goal of celebrating, supporting, and protecting journalism.
In the last ten years, the Prize has collected almost 6,000 entries and awarded projects and journalists that, with their stories, helped us understand the Europe we live in, contributing to strengthening its democratic values, and sometimes managed to reach beyond the EU’s borders.
Lars Munch, Board Member of the Prize and Chairman of the Politiken-Foundation: “Our aspiration was to raise awareness on quality journalism. When I look back at the impressive list of laureates and prize winners over the last 10 years, I think we’re on the right track. The work will continue. More than ever, we need quality journalism as a counterweight to disinformation, lies, fake news, and ignorance.”
Yoeri Albrecht, Board Member of the Prize and Director of De Balie: “We set up the European Press Prize ten years ago in De Balie, in Amsterdam, to shed light on the amazingly diverse, brave, important, and well-produced journalism that flourishes in every corner of our continent. We hoped that by honoring it, good quality journalism becomes more appreciated, and widely consumed. Journalism is vital for the survival of democracy and the rule of law.”
A special speaker: Olga Rudenko
Present at the event as a speaker and as a guest, was Olga Rudenko, editor-in-chief of the Ukrainian newspaper The Kyiv Independent.
Rudenko spoke at length, together with Clara Jiménez Cruz, CEO and co-founder of Maldita.es, about the importance and direction of journalism during these uncertain times.
Announced live, from Madrid
As of habit, the location of the Prize award ceremony rotates between different European capitals and, for this year, the choice fell on Madrid.
This ceremony has special significance because it marks the tenth anniversary of the Prize, but also because it represents a return to normality, after two years during which the coronavirus pandemic complicated the organization of this event.
Journalists, activists, judges, and the Laureates of the Prize gathered at La Casa Encendida for an evening made not only of awards but also of conversations on important topics that touch the journalistic world. One above all, the Ukraine invasion and subsequent war.
The European Press Prize Director Thomas van Neerbos: “Being part of the prize from the beginning, it has been one of the great joys of my life to be in the room with the best minds and hearts in European journalism, assessing stories from different perspectives – reading all those carefully chosen words. 10 years, 6000 articles submitted, 4000 words each on average. That’s 24 million words of quality journalism. Can you imagine the impact these words must have had on our Europe?”
The prize 2022 awards
THE DISTINGUISHED REPORTING AWARD
RUNNER-UP
One in every five Polish vets has considered suicide: “I broke down on December 23rd when I had to put down nine animals in one day.” by Anna Kiedrzynek, published in ‘Duży Format’ by Gazeta Wyborcza (Poland)
WINNER
What Guantánamo made of them by Bastian Berbner, John Goetz, published by DIE ZEIT (Germany)
THE INNOVATION AWARD
RUNNER-UP
This is us by Lisa Caspari, Philipp Daum, Philip Faigle, Ileana Grabitz, Mark Heywinkel, Moritz Klack, Marlene Knobloch, Julia Kopatzki, Lucie Liu, Annabelle Seubert, Frida Thurm, Vanessa Vu, Julius Tröger, Dr. Andreas Loos, Sascha Venohr, Christoph Rauscher, Thilo Kasper, Axel Rudolph, Michael Pfister, Sebastian Berger, Simon Koy, Kalpesh Lathigra, Thomas Pirot, Julia Sellmann, Marzena Skubatz, Thomas Victor, Lucas Wahl, Mona Wetzel, published by ZEIT ONLINE (Germany)
WINNER
Cities for rent: Investigating corporate landlords across Europe by 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, and the editorial and data journalism staff of the media and publishing partners published by Arena for Journalism in Europe (Europe), ORF (Austria), Apache (Belgium), Deník Referendum (Czech Republic), Mediapart (France), Der Tagesspiegel (Germany), AthensLive (Greece), Reporters United (Greece), Dublin Inquirer (Ireland), IrpiMedia (Italy), E24 (Norway), Expresso (Portugal), elDiario.es (Spain), Reflekt (Switzerland), Republik (Switzerland), and other publication partners: Ctxt.es (Spain), Follow The Money (The Netherlands)
THE INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING AWARD
RUNNER-UP
Huge quantities of Chinese cigarettes smuggled into Ukraine by Anna Myroniuk, Andrei Ciurcanu (partner at OCCRP), published by Kyiv Post, OCCRP (Ukraine)
WINNER
The investigation is closed by Paavo Teittinen, published by Helsingin Sanomat (Finland)
THE PUBLIC DISCOURSE AWARD
RUNNER-UP
Belarus: escaping Lukashenko’s regime at any cost by Denis Vejas, published by ereb (France), NARA (Lithuania)
WINNER
Memory in the age of impunity by Peter Pomerantsev, published by Coda Story (Georgia)
THE SPECIAL AWARD
WINNER
Woman’s body, man’s medicine by Lara Bonilla, Ricard Marfà, Idoia Longan, published by Diari ARA (Catalonia, Spain)
All shortlisted articles are published in English on the European Press Prize website. To receive the stories in your inbox, sign up for the European Press Prize newsletter here.
Contact emanuele@europeanpressprize.com for republishing articles or more information from either bureau or laureates.
About the European Press Prize
The European Press Prize celebrates the highest achievements in European journalism. The prize is made possible by a number of European media foundations who strive to encourage quality journalism in Europe: The Guardian Foundation, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Politiken Foundation, Foundation Veronica, Jyllands-Posten Foundation, Democracy and Media Foundation, The Irish Times Trust Limited, Media Development Investment Fund, Agora Foundation and Luminate.
The European Press Prize is awarded on a yearly basis in 4 categories: Distinguished Reporting, Innovation, Public Discourse, and Investigative Reporting. The judges award a Special Award for excellent journalism to one striking entry which defies categories and disciplines. Each award is worth €10,000.
Laureates
European Press Prize winers and nominees from previous years include among many others Beata Balogová (SME), Isobel Cockerell (Coda Story) and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Preparatory committee
This year’s preparatory committee consists of Denis Staunton (The Irish Times), Natalia Antelava (Coda Story), Şebnem Arsu (freelance), Beata Balogová (SME), Denis Džidić (BIRN BiH), Konstanty Gebert (European Council on Foreign Relations), Sérgio B. Gomes (Público), Anna Husarska (International Rescue Committee), Winny de Jong (NOS), Oleg Khomenok (Internews Network, GIJN), Cristian Lupsa (DoR), Natalie Nougayrède (The Guardian), Jacopo Ottaviani (Code for Africa), Lucila Rodríguez-Alarcón (porCausa Foundation), Dimitris Theodoropoulos (Onassis Foundation), Bartosz Wieliński (Gazeta Wyborcza) and the new members that joined this year: Roman Anin (iStories), Katrin Kuntz (Der Spiegel), Mathias Friis (DR) and Lidy Nicolasen (De Volkskrant).
