The countdown is on for the IJ4EU Impact Award 2025, Europe’s top honour for impactful cross-border investigative journalism. We are excited to unveil the remarkable jury entrusted with selecting this year’s winners.
Made up of celebrated journalists and committed defenders of media freedom, the jury brings a wealth of experience to recognising work that breaks new ground, holds power to account, and inspires change across borders.
Earlier in August 2025, the jury gathered to review every eligible nomination from across Europe and beyond. After careful discussion and thorough evaluation, they have chosen three outstanding investigations that embody the very best of collaborative watchdog reporting.
The winners will be announced on 26 September at the award ceremony closing UNCOVERED, IJ4EU’s annual conference, hosted in Athens as part of the iMEdD International Journalism Forum.
Meet the jury celebrating Europe’s most impactful cross-border investigations:
A leading media lawyer, Gill Phillips has defended some of the boldest investigative journalism of recent years. As The Guardian’s Director of Editorial Legal Services for over a decade, she helped reporters publish in the public interest and withstand legal threats. Today, she works with NGOs and non-profits as an editorial legal consultant, co-edits McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists, teaches media law at City St George’s University, and consults with Reviewed and Cleared. Chair of the 2025 IJ4EU Impact Award jury, Phillips remains a vital ally for watchdog reporters, ensuring that courageous stories see the light of day.
Mira Milosevic is a global leader in shaping sustainable, rights-based media ecosystems. As Executive Director of the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD), she has transformed the organisation into a trusted policy and knowledge hub, forging high-level partnerships and influencing decision-makers worldwide. With over two decades of experience at the intersection of media, technology, economics, and policy, Mira advises governments, international bodies, and platforms on issues like platform governance, digital markets, and the future of information. Serving in expert groups for the UN, OSCE, and OECD, she champions innovation while protecting press freedom, making her an essential voice in global debates on journalism in the digital era.
Maribel Königer, Director Journalism and Media at ERSTE Foundation, drives initiatives that strengthen investigative journalism and public-interest media across Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. Through her leadership, ERSTE Foundation has become a pivotal supporter of watchdog journalism and resilient media landscapes, ensuring that journalists can uncover stories that matter and keep democratic debate alive. She represents the foundation on the Pluralis supervisory board, supporting media pluralism in CEE. ERSTE Foundation is also a co-initiator of the Media Forward Fund, fostering sustainable business models for DACH-region newsrooms. Maribel serves on the steering committee of Philea’s Journalism Funders Forum, working to expand resources for investigative reporting.
Paul Caruana Galizia is an award-winning investigative journalist at the Financial Times, known for reporting that has triggered parliamentary inquiries, dismantled a multi-billion-pound hedge fund, and exposed misconduct at the highest levels of culture and finance. His book A Death in Malta, about the assassination of his mother, journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, won the Cornelius Ryan Award for best book on international affairs. Chair of the 2024 IJ4EU Impact Award jury, Paul continues to champion hard-hitting investigative work that makes an impact. His reporting blends tenacity, precision, and a deep belief in journalism’s power to deliver truth and accountability.
Kolja Weber is founder and CEO of FlokiNET, a secure hosting provider established in Iceland in 2012 to serve journalists, NGOs, and civil society. Combining technical expertise with activism, he advocates for digital safety as a cornerstone of free expression and a free press. Weber is a frequent speaker on digital rights, online security, and the tools that help investigative journalists protect sources, data, and stories. His work equips newsrooms and whistleblowers with infrastructure that supports complex, high-stakes reporting, ensuring that watchdog journalism can thrive even under pressure.
The countdown begins for Europe’s leading prize in cross-border investigative journalism.
Ten outstanding investigations have been shortlisted for the 2025 IJ4EU Impact Award, Europe’s annual prize celebrating impactful collaborative journalism.
This year’s pool of eligible nominations reflects the power of cross-border collaboration in European watchdog journalism, with projects submitted by 36 teams representing a total of 58 countries—including all 27 EU member states and countries well beyond European borders.
The shortlist was selected through a pre-evaluation process carried out by independent evaluators at Leipzig University, convened by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), one of the IJ4EU fund’s core partners.
An independent jury chaired by Gillian Phillips will select three winning teams, each awarded €5,000. While the shortlist highlights exceptional entries, the jury retains the flexibility to choose winners from the entire pool of eligible nominations. The winners will be announced on 26 September 2025 at the closing ceremony of UNCOVERED, IJ4EU’s annual conference. This year’s edition will be hosted in Athens, Greece, by iMEdD International Journalism Forum.
Explore the 10 shortlisted investigations, listed in alphabetical order.
by a consortium of international media partners led by Forbidden Stories
“We call on all investigative journalists around the world to support us and continue our investigations where we left off.”
15 outlets, coordinated by Forbidden Stories, responded to that call — taking up the work of Azerbaijani journalists Ulvi Hasanli and Sevinc Vaqifqizi of Abzas Media, who were imprisoned alongside four of their colleagues by Azerbaijani authorities. The investigation they continued exposed far more than local corruption: from the murky management of Azerbaijan’s prison system and environmental abuses at the Gedabek gold mine, to EU funds flowing into Azerbaijan’s prison system known for human rights violations. It also reveals how election monitoring was manipulated, and uncovers a financial network involving millions in embezzled funds moving through Luxembourg, France, and Azerbaijan just as Azerbaijan prepared to host COP29.
Why are life-saving medicines still out of reach for so many in Europe — and who profits from the pain?
Investigate Europe, with its partners NDR, WDR, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Reporters United, and Eesti Ekspress, exposes how pharmaceutical giants exploit opaque pricing systems, lobbying power, and intellectual property rules to keep drug costs high across the continent. With powerful reporting from across EU member states, the cross-border team uncovers how governments are often out-negotiated, patients left waiting, and public health budgets strained, all while Big Pharma’s profits soar. This is investigative journalism that demands answers from a system built to benefit shareholders over lives.
by a consortium of international media partners led by Forbidden Stories
Press vests have become targets.
Since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on 7 October, Palestine has become the most dangerous place on earth for media workers with over 100 journalists having been killed in Gaza and the West Bank. In response to this deadliest conflict for the press in recent history, The Gaza Project brings together 50 reporters from 13 newsrooms, coordinated by Forbidden Stories, to investigate nearly 100 cases of journalists killed, injured, or allegedly targeted. Unable to report from inside the Gaza strip, the team gathered more than 120 witness accounts, mapped GPS data, traced ballistic trajectories, and consulted 25 independent experts. The result: Compelling evidence that challenges Israeli government denials and exposes a chilling pattern of attacks on the press.
Built to tackle border crime in West Africa, used to crush democratic dissent in Senegal.
The investigation by Andrei Popoviciu and José Bautista reveals how GAR-SI, backed by millions in European funding, was deployed to suppress protests sparked by the prosecution of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko. Dozens were killed, and many more injured or arrested, as Senegalese authorities used EU-supplied armored vehicles and gear to target demonstrators, often far from any border. Internal documents, footage, and a confidential evaluation expose not only the force’s domestic use, but also a pattern of corruption, poor oversight, and rights abuses. The investigation led members of the European Parliament to call for a formal inquiry into how EU-funded security projects are being used to undermine the same democratic values they’re meant to uphold.
17 journalists from seven countries joined forces to verify and analyse a cache of documents leaked from Putin’s presidential administration. Published in lead-up to the Russia’s presidential election, Kremlin Leaks offers a unique insight into how Kremlin stages a billion dollar performance of civic engagement, creating fake networks of opinion leaders, running a propaganda systems that tracks Russian citizen from birth to death, and spies on each step they take on the internet using sophisticated IT systems. The investigation also uncovers how Russia’s propaganda machine extends to unexpected institutions, including even the Russian Red Cross (RRC). Documents show its involvement in “re-education” of children deported from occupied Ukraine and routine engagement in Russia’s patriotic military camps, where young children are taught to handle rifles and train in close-combat.
by Belarusian Investigative Center (Alina Yanchur, Stanislau Ivashkevich, Maksym Savchuk) and 15min.lt (Jūratė Damulytė, Gabriele Navickaite, Jurgita Šimelevičienė)
New passports, same oligarch
This series of investigation, BIC and 15min.lt shows how one man’s monopoly has quietly shaped the business of state control: Viktor Chevtsov, a powerful oligarch known as “Lukashenko’s moneybag” profits from a company called Golograficheskaya Industria, which has held a state-granted monopoly on producing security holograms and crystallograms state-mandated on a wide range of consumer products, securing a steady flow of public money into private hands. But the story doesn’t end there: Reporters also uncovered ties between Chevtsov and Lithuania’s longtime passport producer, Garsų pasaulis, the very company chosen by Belarusian opposition leaders to create the “New Belarus” passport–a document meant to give safe, legitimate identification to Belarusians in exile. Unbeknownst to Belarusian opposition, Garsų pasaulis and Chevtsov co-own a company registered in Lithuania.
US taxpayer money channelled to a secret campaign to promote pesticides
A consortium of outlets coordinated by Lighthouse Reports brought to light how the US government funded a covert campaign by the PR company v-Fluence to downplay the risks of pesticides, discredit opponents, and undermine Europe’s Green Deal. The taxpayer money was channelled, among others, to an exclusive social network named “Bonus Eventus”, exposing private data of hundreds of pesticide critics including scientists, politicians, campaigners and UN experts, to its members including US government officials. The investigation also revealed that v-Fluence worked actively using influence and misinformation campaigns to undermine the EU Green Deal and a conference on the health risks of hazardous pesticides in Kenya, leading international funders to withdraw their support from the event.
That is exactly what journalists from Delfi, OCCRP, Paper Trail Media, ZDF, and Der Standard did to gain access to a covert Telegram channel linked to the Wagner mercenary group, for their undercover investigation. Behind this simple greeting lies a disturbing recruitment pipeline: young men with pro-Russian views are being targeted and encouraged to “join the fight against Ukraine’s Western allies.” These channels, which Western experts believe are backed by Russian intelligence services, offer payment in cryptocurrency in exchange for acts of sabotage, espionage, arson, and even murder. The goal is clear: Spread fear and chaos, and weaken support for Ukraine from within Western societies.
Stefano Valentino and Giorgio Michalopoulos, Freelance journalists / Voxeurop
Image credit: Pavel Constantin
Was green finance meant to fix the environmental crisis or to hide it?
What was once introduced as a tool to steer money away from climate-damaging industries is now being hijacked to legitimise them. A year-long investigation reveals how companies involved in oil and gas, coal mining, aviation, fashion, and even arms manufacturing are cashing in on green investment schemes, by exploiting regulatory loopholes, using vague language, and leaning on weak voluntary standards to issue so-called green bonds often with no binding climate conditions. These funds allow them to finance their business as usual behind their official climate commitments, and spread misleading messages about the supposed sustainability of their brands.
Across North Africa, tens of thousands of Black people are forcibly removed and abandoned in barren desert zones, left at risk of starvation, violence, and death. These expulsions are carried out with European funds, masked by the sanitized language of “migration management.” And often, not without Europe’s knowledge. The investigation by Lighthouse Reports, Enass, Inkyfada, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, El Pais, Irpi, and Tagesschau reveal that EU-backed resources, including money, vehicles, and surveillance technology, directly enable these “desert dumps,” which systematically target Black communities through racial profiling and forceful expulsion in Morocco, Mauritania, and Tunisia, even after their legal status and livelihood in these countries have long been established.
Philips has helped shape a newsroom culture where courageous reporting and legal integrity go hand in hand.
Gill Phillips, the lawyer who has helped protect some of the most groundbreaking journalism of recent years, will chair the jury for this year’s IJ4EU Impact Award. We’re honoured to have her lead the process of recognising outstanding journalistic work that makes a difference.
Phillips has stood at the intersection of truth and power, advising journalists on how to publish stories in the public interest — and survive the legal storm. For over a decade as Director of Editorial Legal Services at The Guardian, she helped shape a newsroom culture where courageous reporting and legal integrity went hand in hand.
As an editorial legal consultant for NGOs and non-profits, Phillips continues to be a quiet force behind fearless journalism. She is the current co-editor of McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists, teaches media law on the Journalism MA course at City St George’s University, and is a consultant with Reviewed and Cleared.
Gill Phillips is the fifth chair to oversee the IJ4EU Impact Award jury, which selects the winners of three annual cash prizes of €5,000. The awards celebrate cross-border investigative teams that have broken new grounds in reporting on transnational issues.
She follows in the footsteps of previous jury chairs: award-winning Maltese journalist Paul Caruana Galizia, Hungarian freelance journalist Attila Mong, CORRECTIV.Europe’s Director Joanna Krawczyk, and Shaun Walker, Central and Eastern Europe correspondent for The Guardian.
The 2025 Impact Award winners will be announced on 26 September during a special ceremony at IJ4EU’s annual conference UNCOVERED, hosted in Athens by the iMEdD International Journalism Forum.
What drives a journalist to undertake a complex investigation across borders? How can reporters unschooled in data science unlock the secrets of algorithms? What’s the best way to go undercover in the international porn industry?
Those questions and more took centre stage at UNCOVERED 2024, the fifth annual conference of the IJ4EU fund for cross-border investigative journalism.
UNCOVERED 2024 was hosted by the iMEdD International Journalism Forum, a collaboration that allowed the IJ4EU community to rub shoulders with around 1,000 attendees of iMEdD’s annual event.
Get a glimpse of UNCOVERED’s key moments below.
Personal journeys
In the industrial chic of a former furniture factory, the conference kicked off with opening speeches from ECPMF, IPI and iMEdD, underlining the importance of cross-border journalistic collaboration in a time of crisis and declining press freedom.
Things then got up close and personal as Timothy Large (Austria), who heads the IJ4EU fund as director of independent media programmes at IPI, probed the motivations of “serial grantees” during a fireside chat.
Investigative journalists Ludovica Jona (Italy), Iliana Papangeli (Greece) and Gian-Paolo Accardo (Belgium), who have successfully led a string of IJ4EU-funded investigations, shared their experiences in complex cross-border collaborations.
They discussed the challenges of their work, offering insights into how their journeys have shaped their careers and views on journalism, setting an empathetic tone for the conference.
Left to right: Timothy Large, Iliana Papangeli, Ludovica Jona, Gian-Paolo Accardo (Photo: Deniz Bozkurt / ECPMF)
“Cross-border investigative journalism is something funders are interested in supporting,” Iliana Papangeli noted. “It is one of the best ways to ensure we continue making an impact through our reporting.”
Fresh perspectives
The next panel, Earth, Wine, and Fire: Climate Stories with a Twist, explored innovative angles in climate journalism.
Left to right: Jelena Prtoric, Manuel Bivar, Cush Rodríguez Moz, Eve Tsirigotaki and Raluca Besliu (Photo: Tea Rissanen)
In a workshop titled World of Pain, paper trail media co-founder Frederik Obermaier (Germany) and Madlen Davies (Britain), senior editor at The Examination, shared insights from their joint investigation into how Mundipharma, a British multinational owned by members of the Sackler family, continues profiting from opioids. They said the issue has been largely overlooked outside the United States, stressing the need for international accountability. Read more about the investigation here.
The panel was moderated by Zlatina Siderova (Netherlands) from EJC and featured reporters Marta Montojo (Spain), Patricia Huon (Belgium), Carol Isoux (France), Flavia Campeis (Argentina) and Ana Ćurić (Serbia), whose expertise encompasses Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Balkans and Africa’s Sahel region.
Left to right: Zlatina Siderova, Patricia Huon, Flavia Campeis, Carol Isoux, Marta Montojo, Ana Ćurić (Photo: Tea Rissanen)
Mohammad Bassiki (France), Fatima Karimova (Germany) and Metin Cihan (Germany) shared their experiences exposing truths behind authoritarian regimes and crises in Syria, Azerbaijan and Turkey, respectively. The discussion on the challenges and potential of journalism in exile touched on the speakers’ hands-on approaches to reporting from afar and the resilience and determination of these reporters in their pursuit of truth.
Left to right: Elena Rodina, Fatima Karimova, Mohammad Bassiki, Metin Cihan (Photo: Deniz Bozkurt / ECPMF)
Defending press freedom
On the second day of UNCOVERED, IJ4EU joined forces with the iMEDd International Journalism Forum, with attendees from both events gathering for the first panel, Defending Press Freedom: The Case of Europe. Speakers — including Elena Rodina, ECPMF’s Media Freedom Rapid Response Coordinator, and Scott Griffen (Austria), IPI’s interim executive director — addressed the ongoing challenges to press freedom in Europe. Watch the video below.
The UNCOVERED agenda continued with Inside the Machine: Investigating AI and Algorithms, a panel moderated by IPI’s Timothy Large and featuring journalists behind three groundbreaking investigations into inscrutable AI systems.
“We are talking about societies which have one of the highest transparency scores, and yet the transparency might totally be missing,” Howden said, commenting on the opaqueness of algorithms that make life-changing decisions for countless people in European countries.
Christides said the role of journalists was to sound the alarm on such systems, especially in contexts such as migration camps on the doorstep of the European Union, where unaccountable algorithms increasingly make decisions affecting some of the world’s most vulnerable people. “Our goal is to inspire change in any way we can,” he said.
Watch the complete conversation here.
Getting down and dirty
As the agenda drew to a close, two workshops focused on practical matters.
The first, How to Go Undercover, was moderated by ECPMF’s Deniz Bozkurt (Germany) and featured an engaging session in which journalists Nikolai Atefie (Sweden) and Elena Ledda (Spain) shared strategies for exposing illicit activities through undercover investigative work into the porn industry and people-smuggling rackets.
Nikolia Apostolou (Greece), resource centre director at the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN), highlighted the intricacies of gathering evidence while ensuring personal safety. Check out GIJN’s Guide to Undercover Reporting here.
Participants received practical guidance, such as how to articulate their stories and begin preparing entries for the European Press Prize 2025 and the IJ4EU Impact Award 2025. Lupșa urged applicants to adhere to submission guidelines, refrain from overselling and clearly communicate the purpose, scope and relevance of investigations in local contexts.
Tune into the full workshop here.
IJ4EU Impact Awards
UNCOVERED 2024 ended on a high note as the IJ4EU Impact Awards recognised three investigative teams with €5,000 each for excellence in cross-border journalism. The winners were (with no particular ranking):
Read more about the award and the inspiring investigative teams that won here and view the full ceremony below.
Browse photos from the conference here. Special thanks to Tea Rissanen from IPI, and Alex Grymanis, Christos Karagiorgakis, and Ronny Skevis from iMEdD for capturing these moments.
*All countries indicated next to speakers’ names refer to countries of residence, not necessarily countries of citizenship.
On September 25 and 26, Athens became the meeting point for Europe’s top cross-border investigative journalists at the 2024 IJ4EU UNCOVERED Conference, hosted at iMEdD International Journalism Forum this year. The event featured two days of engaging panels and workshops, covering topics as diverse as crisis reporting, unique climate stories, press freedom and reverse-engineering AI algorithms.
Check out the photos from the conference below. Share your favourite moments on Twitter using #IJ4EU, and don’t forget to tag @ECPMF!
Three teams win top honours at Europe’s leading prize for transnational watchdog reporting.
From a forensic look at a catastrophic shipwreck to the exposure of global disinformation networks and a search for unmarked migrant graves across Europe, remarkable examples of collaborative journalism won the IJ4EU Impact Award 2024 on Thursday.
Three international teams of journalists received equal recognition at the annual prize of the Investigative Journalism for Europe (IJ4EU) fund, which supports cross-border watchdog reporting.
“I know I speak for the rest of the jury when I say that so many of the entries were of an outstanding quality,” Maltese investigative journalist Paul Caruana Galizia, who chaired the jury, said.
“A reminder, as if we needed one, that there are many journalists out there working — sometimes on a shoestring, sometimes at risk — on stories that are important, in the public interest and have the power to affect change.”
An independent jury chose the following investigations from a shortlist of nominations for Europe’s only prize devoted to celebrating journalistic collaboration across frontiers.
The winning teams received cash prizes of €5,000 each. The jury was unanimous in its decision.
Along with Caruana Galizia, the jury members were pioneering documentary maker Christopher Hird; Gabriela Manuli, deputy director of the Global Investigative Journalism Network; award-winning Kosovo journalist Saranda Ramaj; and Nik Williams, a media freedom advocate who co-chairs the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition.
This investigation by Solomon, Forensis, The Guardian and ARD forensically examined a 2023 shipwreck that killed more than 500 irregular migrants in Greek waters. The jury praised it for its innovative storytelling.
By exposing failures in the official responses, the project has had a significant impact in Greece, contributing to a compelling case that is now part of ongoing court proceedings.
With an interdisciplinary approach incorporating forensic modelling, the team demonstrated exceptional cross-border collaboration and swift execution, interviewing affected families and producing a powerful video, the jury said.
Story Killers is a global exposé by Forbidden Stories revealing the shadowy world of disinformation mercenaries. What sets the project apart is its focus on the experiences of journalists who risk their safety to report on this perilous industry.
The jury commended the team for painting a profound picture of the landscape of disinformation, surveillance and press freedom.
Forbidden Stories is an international network of journalists operating under the motto: “Killing the journalist won’t kill the story.” For this project, Forbidden Stories brought together more than 100 journalists from 30 media outlets for a unique collaboration.
One of the journalists whose work Forbidden Stories continued was Gauri Lankesh, who was assassinated in Bangalore in 2017, days before she planned to publish an article about disinformation.
“By continuing Gauri Lankesh’s important work, not only did Story Killers uncover the global disinformation complex that threatens free expression and democracy in every country across the globe beyond India alone, they shone a light on Gauri’s tragic death,” jury member Williams said.
“Through that, they also honoured her courageous life.”
In an effort to uncover the fate of irregular migrants who perish attempting to reach the European Union, eight freelancers identified more than 1,000 unmarked graves in 65 cemeteries across Europe.
The jury lauded the team’s humane approach and strong visual storytelling that relied on powerful photography and virtual reality, complementing the investigative work.
The freelancer team brought attention to an underreported issue and highlighted the failure of EU migration policies and the right to truth for hundreds of affected families.
The jury also acknowledged the investigation’s contribution to transforming public understanding of the issue. The Border Graves Investigation is the only winner this year who has received IJ4EU funding.
“This project is a perfect example of how to do investigative journalism with boots on the ground, while shining a light on individual stories and humanising victims,” jury member Manuli said.
“What makes it more exemplary, is that it was conducted by a very small cross-border team. Out of the eight reporters, six of them are full-time freelancers, and the other two are affiliated with small newsrooms. And all this significant reporting was done with very little resources, in a period of over six months.”
The Dutch non-profit collaborated with newsrooms across Europe to uncover the discriminatory effects of welfare surveillance algorithms and highlight the lack of transparency in how governments deploy these secretive AI systems.
The jury praised the project for its impressive methodology, setting a new standard for data journalism by effectively blending investigative reporting with tech-driven approaches.
Seeking truth across borders
The IJ4EU Impact Award honours journalistic teams collaborating across borders in countries that have signed up to the full cross-sectoral strand of the European Union’s Creative Europe Programme, which provides core funding for IJ4EU.
The award is open to teams regardless of whether they have received IJ4EU grant funding.
The IJ4EU consortium extends its congratulations to the winning teams for the well-deserved recognition.
The journalists’ work underscores the importance of cross-border investigative journalism in revealing truths that extend beyond national borders and holding those in power accountable, playing a pivotal role in promoting transparency and justice across the world.
Winners of Europe’s leading award for cross-border investigative journalism will be announced on 26 September 2024.
We are thrilled to announce the distinguished jury for the IJ4EU Impact Award 2024! Consisting of renowned journalists and media freedom advocates, the jury’s insights is instrumental in recognizing and honouring the most impactful, ground-breaking, and innovative investigations published between October 2022 and December 2023.
The jury met earlier in August 2024 convened to meticulously review all the nominations and determine the winners for this year’s awards. After thorough deliberations, they have selected three outstanding winners whose work exemplifies the highest standards in cross-border collaborative journalism. The winners will be announced on 26 September during an award ceremony held at IJ4EU’s annual UNCOVERED Conference, in conjunction with the iMEdD International Journalism Forum in Athens.
Here are the members of the IJ4EU Impact Award 2024 jury.
Paul Caruana Galizia became a journalist at Tortoise after his mother was assassinated and since then has won an Orwell Prize special award, a British Journalism Award and Press Award, and other honours for his reporting. With his brothers, he has received a Magnitsky Human Rights Award and an Anderson-Lucas-Norman Award for campaigning to achieve justice for Daphne. His book A Death in Malta won the Cornelius Ryan Award from the Overseas Press Club.
Gabriela Manuli is the Deputy Director of the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN), an association of 250 non-profit organisations in 91 countries dedicated to investigative reporting. In 2019, she co-founded the GIJN Women Group, a network created to discuss issues related to women and non-binary investigative journalists. A native of Argentina (and currently based in Budapest, Hungary), she has been a journalist for more than 20 years (working for radio, TV, magazines and newspapers) and has extensive international experience in Latin America, Europe and the United States.
Nik Williams is a media freedom and free expression advocate based in Glasgow, who currently contributes to Index on Censorship‘s work on SLAPPs, digital rights and transnational repression. He is the co-chair of the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition and the convenor of the Scottish Anti-SLAPP Working Group. At ECPMF, he coordinated the inaugural year of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), which responds to violations of media freedom in Europe. Previously, Nik led Scottish PEN’s campaigning and advocacy, focusing on defamation reform, free expression, digital rights and surveillance policy. Nik is also the co-chair of the investigative journalism co-op, The Ferret.
Saranda Ramaj has been working at newspaper Koha Ditore since 2013. Her coverage includes public procurement, the justice system, and corruption in healthcare. Saranda systematically develops complex research in these fields unveiling irregularities, corruption and organised crime. With her stories, she also has prevented the signing of illegal tenders worth millions that were mainly policy-related businesses. In her eleven years as a journalist, she has been awarded 19 prizes for investigative journalism. Saranda was awarded Journalist of the Year 2022 in Kosovo. Since 2016, Saranda has also been conducting various studies with national and international non-profit organisations, especially in the areas of health policy and human rights.
Christopher Hird is the founder and managing director of Dartmouth Films , which has pioneered new ways of funding, producing and distributing documentaries in the UK. A former investment analyst in the City, he worked as a journalist on the Economist, Daily Mail, New Statesman and Sunday Times, where he was the editor of Insight. He is former managing editor of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the author of Investigative Journalism Works: The Mechanism of Impact.
Winners of Europe’s leading prize for cross-border investigative journalism will be announced on September 26.
Ten cross-border investigations have been shortlisted for the fourth annual IJ4EU Impact Award, honouring excellence in collaborative journalism in Europe.
An independent jury chaired by Maltese journalist Paul Caruana Galizia will choose three winning teams, which will be revealed on September 26, 2024. Each will receive €5,000.
Below are the 10 shortlisted entries, in alphabetical order and selected from a pool of nominations by independent evaluators assembled by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, a partner in the IJ4EU fund.
The award is open to cross-border journalistic teams of any kind, regardless of whether or not they have received support from the IJ4EU fund.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a group of Nordic journalists has been investigating a world of Russian spying, seabed warfare and disinformation, revealing evidence of a complex hybrid war. They have produced a seven-part podcast series, a three-episode TV-series, as well as several articles.
In March 2022, Russia bombed the Mariupol Drama Theater, used as a shelter for thousands of Ukrainian civilians. Using eyewitness testimonies and visual evidence, a team led by Forensic Architecture reconstructed events, countering Russian attempts to erase the truth.
Journalists investigating disinformation are threatened, jailed and in extreme cases, like that of Indian journalist Gauri Lankesh, killed. Forbidden Stories gathered more than 100 journalists from 30 media outlets to expose the inner workings of the global, secretive world of disinformation mercenaries.
Governments use welfare surveillance algorithms with little transparency, leading to discrimination against vulnerable populations, this series of collaborative investigations led by Lighthouse Reports reveals as it probes under the bonnet of secretive AI.
What happens to those who die trying to reach the European Union? Journalists have confirmed the existence of 1,015 unmarked graves of migrants buried in 65 cemeteries across Europe, revealing how EU migration policy has failed both the dead and the living
Forbidden Stories brings together 50 journalists from 16 news organisations to continue the work of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips, killed for exposing illegal activities in the Amazon. “The murderers of Bruno and Dom will not succeed in preventing this story from being told.”
An investigation by 18 newsrooms reveals that almost 23,000 sites all over Europe are contaminated by toxic “forever chemicals” found in commercial products. PFAS are linked to cancer and infertility, among a dozen other diseases.
Led by freelance photojournalist Hanna Jarzabek, this investigation lays bare the dire conditions facing migrants and refugees in Europe’s last primaeval forest along the Polish-Belarusian border – and Poland’s double standards in helping asylum seekers.
An investigation led by the EBU Investigative Journalism Network reveals how thousands of Ukrainian kids are being transferred into Russia from the occupied territories in eastern Ukraine. The Kremlin says Russia is saving them. Kyiv calls it genocide.
This investigation by Solomon, Forensis, The Guardian and ARD takes a forensic look at a 2023 shipwreck that killed more than 500 irregular migrants in Greek waters. Contradicting official accounts, the journalists find a failure to mobilise help and evidence that survivor statements were tampered with.
The Maltese journalist will oversee the selection of winners of IJ4EU’s annual prize for cross-border watchdog journalism.
Paul Caruana Galizia, an award-winning Maltese journalist, will serve as the jury chair for the IJ4EU Impact Awards 2024, honouring excellence in cross-border investigative journalism in Europe.
Caruana Galizia, an editor and reporter at Tortoise Media, became a journalist after the assassination of his mother, Daphne Caruana Galizia, in 2017.
Since then, he has won an Orwell Prize Special Award, a British Journalism Award, a Press Award and numerous other honours for his reporting. He and his brothers have received a Magnitsky Human Rights Award and an Anderson-Lucas-Norman Award for their campaign to achieve justice for Daphne.
His book, A Death in Malta, won the Cornelius Ryan Award from the Overseas Press Club.
Caruana Galizia’s unwavering dedication to uncovering the truth and his exemplary reporting make him the perfect choice to lead the jury for this year’s IJ4EU Impact Award.
He is the fourth jury chair to oversee the selection of winners of the annual awards, which offer three cash prizes of €5,000 to journalistic teams that have pushed the envelope in reporting on transnational subjects.
Previous chairs were Hungarian freelance journalist Attila Mong; Joanna Krawcyzk, deputy managing director of the German Marshall Fund of the United States; and Shaun Walker, Central and Eastern Europe correspondent for The Guardian.
We are delighted to announce that registration is now open for UNCOVERED 2023!
Returning for a fourth year, UNCOVERED is the annual conference of the IJ4EU programme and an opportunity for you to network with and learn from Europe’s leading cross-border investigative journalists.
This year’s conference will take place in Brussels on 12 and 13 October. It’s an opportunity to showcase the best investigative journalism Europe has to offer and to discuss the challenges faced by those working to shine a light on cross-border crime and corruption. The conference is organised by ECPMF, together with the International Press Institute (IPI) and European Journalism Centre (EJC), and funded by the European Commission.
Click here to secure your place at our annual conference for cross-border investigative journalism. Places at the conference are limited so act fast to seal your participation!
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