The European Press Prize honoured journalists from across the continent, including Russia, Bosnia, Romania, Spain and the UK, for their outstanding work at a ceremony on 13 April in Copenhagen. The EPP – the European Pulitzers – salutes and encourages journalism of the highest quality in the 47 countries of Europe.
The awards went to:
Elena Kostyuchenko, of the Russian daily Novaya Gazeta, won the Distinguished Writing Award for her reporting on a Russian woman’s search for the body of her husband, who was killed fighting in Ukraine.
The Migrants’ Files team of 10 journalists from six countries was awarded the prize in the innovation category. The project’s interactive database chronicled the routes and deaths of more than 28,000 migrants trying to enter Europe since 2000.
Ander Izagirre, of the Spanish paper El Pais, was awarded the investigative category prize for exposing how Colombian soldiers kidnapped and murdered at least 4,716 young men, before dressing them in guerrilla outfits and claiming rewards for their bodies.
Nick Cohen, of The Observer in the UK, won the commentator category for three articles on “the cowardice of Nigel Farage”, the leader of the right-wing United Kingdom Independence Party.
The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a cross-border investigative journalism collaboration of non-profit organizations, won a special prize for its work exposing organised crime and corruption in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Central America, including an exposé of the alliances and funding sources surrounding Montenegro’s Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, which halted the country’s progression towards EU membership.
The winners were awarded €10,000 each to spend on a new journalistic project. The Awards jury was chaired by Sir Harold Evans, Reuters Editor-at-Large and former Editor-in-Chief of The Sunday Times.
The EPP was founded in 2013 by seven media-owning foundations, including MDIF.