Sofia Cherici

Sofia Cherici was selected for the 2026 Shortlist with Scrap Wars: How child labour and conflict feed Turkey steel boom.

Sofia Cherici is an investigative journalist based in Istanbul, with a track record of leading ambitious cross-border investigations across Europe and the Middle East. Her work focuses on the intersection of business malpractice, tainted supply chains, the environment, conflict and state accountability. Her reporting has been supported by international grants from Journalismfund Europe, CIJI and IJ4EU.

She specialises in long-form and multimedia reporting, combining fieldwork with public records, financial registries, FOI requests, data analysis, and OSINT. Her recent projects include coordinating Scrap Wars, a cross-border investigation tracing conflict-linked steel scrap from Syria into Turkey’s steel industry — ultimately contributing to Lebanon’s ban on scrap metal imports from Syria — and reporting on Biomass: The Green Mirage, an investigation into a Czech billionaire’s scheme to exploit loopholes in Europe’s green-subsidy regime. Her work has appeared in outlets including The New Arab, La Repubblica, Follow the Money, EL PAÍS, New Lines Magazine and IrpiMedia.

Michael O’Farrell

Michael O’Farrell was selected for the 2026 Shortlist with The Brother D conspirancy.

Michael O’Farrell is the Investigations Editor for the Irish Mail on Sunday newspaper in Dublin. He is also a best-selling author and an award-winning TV documentary producer. A journalist for more than two decades, Michael has been repeatedly honoured in Ireland for his public interest journalism. Amongst other things, his work has contributed to successful prosecutions against former Government Ministers, forced the resignation of State officials, resulted in changed legislation, helped migrant workers recover millions from their employers, spawned Revenue Investigations of tax fraudsters, resulted in police investigations into bribery and forced the closure of dangerous medical facilities. The investigation presented for this award entry involves a decade of campaigning journalism, printed year after year in countless newspaper editions. This reporting exposed an international child abuse cover-up by the Church and has now resulted in the successful prosecution of a serial abuser. It has also secured millions in compensation for victims.