European Cities Investigative Journalism Accelerator: The continuation of Cities for Rent
In every corner of the continent, our Laureates launch projects that make journalism stronger and more relevant for the public. We present one of them: the European Cities Investigative Journalism Accelerator, the continuation of the 2022 winning investigation Cities for Rent.
Part of the Cities for Rent team at our 2022 Award Ceremony in Madrid
In 2022 our Innovation Award went to Cities for Rent, a cross-border collaborative project that investigated the housing market and corporate landlords in 14 European capital cities.
Following up on Cities for Rent, media partners have reorganised in the newly called “European Cities Investigative Journalism Accelerator” (ECIJA) network, focused on urban challenges.
The network now counts more than 10 members, such as, among others, Tagesspiegel, Deník Referendum, El País, IRPI Media, Reporters United, Dublin Inquirer, ORF, Telex and Gazeta Wyborcza.
A Virtual European Newsroom to investigate shared urban challenges
Following-up on its housing market investigations, many partners have already published a first research project looking into the student housing crisis. But ECIJA also wants to look beyond housing, investigating urban challenges shared among European cities.
“European cities share many urban challenges: from transport to climate change adaptation, from energy to crime. Going beyond housing, we want to investigate these issues – challenges that make cities such as Berlin, Prague and Rome have more in common than big and small cities within national borders” – Hendrik Lehmann, Tagesspiegel
Alongside proceeding with its housing investigation, the network has started regularly producing data visualization on different city-level topics, such as population trends or energy prices, to give two recent examples.
The graphics are shared among the network through new technology developed by Tagesspiegel which allows for dataviz to be easily translated into different languages, thus facilitating shared reporting and syndication across the network’s media outlets.
Bringing together both large and small newsrooms with different business models, the network also wants to experiment and find better ways to generate new supporters/subscribers for media outlets doing investigative journalism and continue to innovate in collaborative journalism. Ultimately working towards a truly European journalism.
Help the network grow
The network is now growing. If you are a funder or a journalist wishing to collaborate, send an email to the ECIJA network at [email protected].
The European Press Prize partners up with the International Journalism Festival of Perugia
The European Press Prize is delighted to announce the start of a collaboration with the IJF – International Journalism Festival of Perugia – that will bring us to the Italian Festival, where the names of the 2023 Shortlist will be released.
In April 2023 we will go back to Perugia for the IJF – International Journalism Festival, the event that every year brings together, in the Italian city of Perugia, journalists, activists, and experts in the field of media from all over the world. However, this edition will bring a novelty: we will officially collaborate with the Festival.
This collaboration will entail a more official presence of the Prize in the programme of the Festival, and a closer contact with all the guests present in Perugia. Some of the Prize Laureates and Nominees will take part in the many panels organised by the IJF, to give their contribution to the discourse on journalism and its many facets.
Our 2023 Shortlist announcement
Moreover, we will release the 2023 Shortlist live from the IJF, officially opening the path towards the Award Ceremony, this year held in Tbilisi (Georgia) at the ZEG Tbilisi Storytelling Festival.
The Nominees of our five categories (Investigative Reporting, Distinguished Reporting, Public Discourse, Innovation, and the new category called Migration Journalism) will be announced during a dedicated event, open to local and international media.
“I think this was bound to happen, and it is most certainly something we have always been hoping for. The IJF is the most renowned festival dedicated to international journalism, and it is a great opportunity for us to be an integral part of it. Our community of journalists will profit from this, and the fact that our Shortlist will be released in Perugia makes this collaboration even more special, and meaningful”, said Emanuele Del Rosso, our Head of Communications.
Arianna Ciccone and Christopher Potter, International Journalism Festival co-founders, explained: “We’re delighted to partner with the European Press Prize. Whether to add the most prestigious European journalism awards to the festival programme was not a difficult decision for us to make. Many Prize Laureates have been speakers at previous festivals so hosting the Shortlist announcement seems a natural fit. We are confident that future Prize Nominees and Laureates will not only enrich the festival community but will also enjoy networking with and even possibly being inspired by the hundreds of journalists, human rights activists and creators from outside Europe who come to the festival every year. We look forward to working together with the European Press Prize in the coming years.”