The European Press Prize in Prague on Thursday highlighted reporting on issues ranging from funding for NGOs in Africa to abuse at care homes in Poland, with winners from 40 countries being recognised at Europe’s answer to the Pulitzer.
The investigative reporting award went to 29-year-old French journalist Marion Quillard for her work exposing how international attention on rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo generated millions in funding for NGOs that never reached those affected.
The special award was given to three pieces of journalism on the refugee crisis, including an article exploring the stories of two wetsuits worn by refugees who died attempting to swim from Calais to the UK, one of whom washed up in Norway and another on the French coast.
Justyna Kopinska’s exposure of the head of a psychiatric ward in Poland who tortured children in her care for two years won the distinguished writing award.
An interactive from Portugese newspaper Expresso about five young men radicalised in London who went to fight in Syria, which included telephone conversations with two of the five, won the innovation award.
The only UK winner was the Financial Times’ Gideon Rachman who won the commentator award for his eponymous series on foreign affairs and globalisation.
The chairman of the EPP judges, the former Sunday Times editor Sir Harold Evans, said: “I salute all of the winners of course: a brave young French journalist exploring the truth in rape claims in east Congo; a brilliant multimedia journey as young Portuguese jihadists lose their moral bearings; a magisterial analysis of our foreign relationships; a passionate revelation of the dark world inside a Polish psychiatric hospital for children; and much heartbreakingly vivid reporting along Europe’s desperate migrant path. They are victors to be proud of!”
The EPP was set up in 2012 to recognise “brave, groundbreaking and creative journalists that show us the world” at a time “when quality and independence are challenged and information is omnipresent”.
It is supported by seven foundations linked to media organisations, including the Guardian Foundation and the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
A full list of winners and runners-up can be found here.
