Journalists from Russia, Spain, France, Bosnia, Romania and Britain have been honoured for their outstanding work by being awarded European Press Prizes (EPP).
They include the Observer’s columnist, Nick Cohen, who won the commentator category for his pieces on “the cowardice of Nigel Farage”.
The EPP judges, chaired by Sir Harold Evans, the Reuters editor-at-large, praised Cohen for his “zest, rhetoric and clear determination to tackle his targets straight on”.
He, like the winners of the other three categories - distinguished writing, investigative reporting and innovation - picked up €10,000, which must be spent on a new journalistic project.
Elena Kostyuchenko won the distinguished writing award for her reporting in the Moscow-based Novaya Gazeta. She followed a Russian woman as she searched for the body of her husband who had been killed in Ukraine. His death, said her piece, was shrouded in silence by Russian bureaucracy.
The investigative category prize went to Ander Izagirre for an article in the Spanish paper, El Pais. He revealed how Colombian army officers kidnapped civilian boys, murdered them, dressed them in guerrilla clothes and claimed rewards for their bodies. At the time, 4,716 cases had been recorded.
The judges said Izagirre’s work was “compelling, splendidly organised and devastating at a human level. It told a terrible story that no one could forget.”
The innovation category, the prize went to a database called The Migrants’ Files that recorded more than 28,000 migrants who have died on their way to Europe since 2000. Ten journalists from six different countries worked on the project.
The map, as pictured above, allows users to search for places where deaths have occurred. It is possible to navigate through 2867 events, 72 territories, 15 detention centres and the 13,744 migrants for which some data is available.
The EPP judges said tragedies continue “because the full extent and horror of the problem is not reliably reported... The Migrant Files begins to fill that gap. It is painstaking and necessary work, full of details that challenge our humanity.”
A special award was also given to the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a pioneer of collaborative, cross-border investigative journalism by non-profit organisations.
Founded by Paul Radu and Drew Sullivan, it’s a consortium of investigative media and journalists operating in eastern Europe, central Asia and central America that specialises in exposing organised crime and corruption.
Radu, from Romania, led one investigation on this year’s innovation shortlist that details how Russian banks use Moldovan and Latvian conduits as mafia money flows into mainstream Europe.
Miranda Patrucic in Bosnia was nominated in the investigative reporting category for her revelations about the web of alliances and streams of funds surrounding Montenegro’s prime minister, stories that halted Montenegro’s march towards European Union membership.
The judges described the OCCRP as “a memorably motivated, determined force for good everywhere it operates. Its members do not get rich, but the societies they serve are richer and cleaner for the scrutiny only true, independent journalism can provide”.
Aside from Evans, the other EPP judges were Juan Luis Cebrian, founding editor of El Pais; Joergen Ejboel, former editor of Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten; Sylvie Kauffman, editorial director of Le Monde in Paris; and Yevgenia Albats, editor-in-chief of The New Times in Moscow.
The prizes were handed out at a ceremony in Copenhagen yesterday (Monday). For more information, see the EPP website.
NB: The Guardian Foundation helps to run and fund the EPP.