Winners and Nominees 2015

The award ceremony of the European Press Prize 2015 was held in Copenhagen at JP/Politiken.

The
Commentator
Award
The
Commentator
Award 2015 Winner

The Cowardice of Nigel Farage

— by Nick Cohen, published by The Observer, United Kingdom

“Sharp, clear and eloquently disgusted, is what Nick Cohen’s series of columns examining “The cowardice of Nigel Farage” (and the cowardice of a British media establishment giving him a soft ride) published in The Observer is. The enjoyed Cohen’s zest, rhetoric and clear determination to tackle his targets straight on. This is opinion writing in a classic tradition.”
The
Commentator
Award 2015 Nominees

The Lost Youth in Greece

— by Maria Louka, published by VICE, Athens, Greece

Inequality explored

— by Rutger Bregman, published by De Correspondent, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

The Mystery of the Secret Funds—and—Who are you Fooling?

— by Cigdem Toker, published by Cumhuriyet, Istanbul, Turkey

Columns on the state of our lives and the natural world

— by George Monbiot, published by The Guardian and BBC Earth, London, United Kingdom

Brussels for Bulgaria: It is not a Circus, it’s a Menagerie

— by Svetoslav Terziev, published by The Sega Daily, Sofia, Bulgaria

The
Distinguished
Writing
Award
The
Distinguished
Writing
Award 2015 Winner

Your husband voluntarily went under fire

— by Elena Kostyuchenko, published by Novaya Gazeta, Russian Federation

“A superb piece of evocative writing, twisting and turning with literary skill as it follows the efforts of a Russian woman to find the body of her soldier husband, killed in action in the Ukraine but buried by bureaucratic silence in Russia. Kostyuchenko’s account is more than skilled writing, though; it is also individual reporting of the finest quality, showing readers both inside and outside Russia how deeply Vladimir Putin’s government is involved in the Eastern Ukraine.”
The
Distinguished
Writing
Award 2015 Nominees

La femme est un homme comme les autres

— by Jelena Prtoric, Emilienne Malfatto, published by Le Monde, Paris, Montenegro, Albania

Inside ISIS

— by Martin Chulov, published by The Guardian, United Kingdom

A Farewell to Kabul

— by Kristin Solberg, published by Aftenposten, Norway

In Farageland

— by James Meek, published by The London Review of Books, United Kingdom

Boko Haram

— by Michael Obert, published by Geo, Germany

The
Innovation
Award
The
Innovation
Award 2015 Winner

The Migrants’ Files: Surveying ­migrants’ deaths at Europe’s door

— by The Migrants’ Files team: Nicolas Kayser-Bril, Jacopo Ottaviani, Sylke Gruhnwald, Jean-Marc Manach, Jens Finnäs, Daniele Grasso, Katerina Stauroula, Alessio Cimarelli, Andrea Nelson Mauro, Alice Kohli, published by The Migrants' Files, Italy, Switzerland, France, Sweden, Spain, Greece

“An ambitious exercise in data journalism collecting, collating and publishing the grim details of immigrant deaths as they flee to Middle East or North ‘Africa for a new life in Europe. Year after year, as boats sink or lorries overturn, hundreds of poor and desperate migrants die in their quest for a better life in Europe, the judges said. But, because the full extent and horror of the problem is not reliably reported, the tragedies simply go on. The Migrants’ Files begins to fill that gap. It is painstaking and necessary work, full of detail that challenges our humanity.”
The
Innovation
Award 2015 Nominees

Europe’s Path to Growth and Jobs

— by Mads Brandstrup, published by Borsen, Denmark

The Belarus Network

— by Nicolas Kayser-Bril on behalf of journalists based in France, Belarus, Russia and Lithuania, published by various outlets including France 24, France

Luxembourg Leaks

— by Mar Cabra on behalf of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and 64 European journalists from 26 different news organisations across Europe, published by -, Spain

The
Investigative
Reporting
Award
The
Investigative
Reporting
Award 2015 Winner

How to produce dead guerillas

— by Ander Izagirre, published by El País, Spain

“A lonely and courageous story which shows how Colombian army officers kidnapped and murdered ordinary civilian boys, dressed them in guerrilla clothes - and then claimed reward bounty for the bodies of supposed terrorists killed. Izagirre’s work is compelling, splendidly organized and devastating at a human level. It told a terrible story that no-one who read it could forget.”
The
Investigative
Reporting
Award 2015 Nominees

Unholy Alliances

— by Miranda Patrucic (OCCRP), Dejan Milovac (MANS) and Stevan Dojcinovic (CINS), published by OCCRP, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Dreams of Camp Nou

— by Hester den Boer, published by a coproduction of De Onderzoeksredactie and De Groene Amsterdammer, the Netherlands

Secret Surveillance in Oslo

— by Andreas Bakke Foss, Per Anders Johansen and Fredrik Hager-Thoresen, published by Aftenposten, Norway

The secret life of Bela Kovacs

— by András Deszó, published by Index.hu, Hungary

Comrade Capitalism

— by Stephen Grey and his team Jason Bush, Roman Anin, Elizabeth Piper, Maria Tsvetkova, Douglas Busvine, Himanshu Ojha, Brian Grow, Tom Bergin, Sevgil Musaieva, Jack Stubbs , published by Reuters, London, United Kingdom

The Middleman

— by Tom Burgis, published by The Financial Times, United Kingdom

The
Special
Award
The
Special
Award 2015 Winner

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project

— by Paul Radu, Drew Sullivan, Miranda Patrucić, et al., published by The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project,

“Each year the judges have to right to single out journalism of particular distinction. This year, in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, they think it right to honour the work of journalists in those parts of Europe where digging out hidden facts, exposing the crooks of big business and politics, can put reporters, their papers and their websites at risk. Bravery does not define journalism. Professionalism and stamina count for just as much, or more. But the scale of investigative ambition demonstrated in this year’s entries, and the sheer, dogged determination to speak truth to power, brings great credit in train. As one way of saluting this journalism, it is right now to reward the prodigious support and co-ordination work of the non-profit Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project linking national investigative centers and individual newsrooms across Eastern Europe and beyond. It is 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.”