European Press Prize

The European Press Prize is a non-profit foundation based in the Netherlands. It runs a programme of journalism awards of the same name for journalists from 46 countries, the Council of Europe, Belarus and Russia. As part of the programme, a jury awards prizes in five categories each year. These are Distinguished Reporting, Innovation, Investigative Reporting, Migration Journalism and Public Discourse. In addition, the jury also awards a special prize for outstanding journalism that transcends categories and disciplines.

History
The European Press Prize was founded in 2012 by seven European media foundations: The Guardian Foundation, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Jyllands-Posten Foundation, Politiken Foundation, Media Development Investment Fund, Vereniging Veronica and Stichting Democratie en Media. In 2015, The Irish Times Trust Limited joined as a member organisation, and Agora SA followed two years later. In 2020, the philanthropic organisation Luminate became a member.

The first ceremony was at De Balie in Amsterdam in 2013, the 2014 awards were given at the Reuters headquarters in London, and in 2015 the European Press Prize visited the JP/Politiken headquarters in Copenhagen. The 2016 awards were presented in Prague with the help of the Forum2000 team. For the fifth anniversary in 2017, the ceremony was held in founding place De Balie in Amsterdam again. In 2018 it took place in Budapest at the Open Archives Society. In 2019 the prizes were awarded in Warsaw at the headquarters of Gazeta Wyborcza. As the COVID-19 pandemic prohibited a live ceremony, the winners of the 2020 and the 2021 edition were announced online.

The organisation is based in Amsterdam.

Jury
Each year, a preparatory committee selects a shortlist, which is published on the European Press Prize website. A panel of judges then selects the winners of the five categories from this list. The jury also decides who will receive the special prize. The winners are usually announced at the Awards Ceremony in May or June.

Currently, the panel of judges is composed of:


 * (chair) Alan Rusbridger, former editor-in-chief of The Guardian
 * Alexandra Föderl-Schmid, deputy editor of the Süddeutsche Zeitung
 * Can Dündar, Turkish journalist, documentary filmmaker and book author


 * , freelance columnist for De Volkskrant
 * , co-founder and CEO of Maldita.es, a Spanish foundation fighting disinformation

From 2013 until 2020:


 * (chair) Sir Harold Evans, editor-at-large of Thomson Reuters and the former editor of the Sunday Times
 * Jørgen Ejbol, chairman of the Jyllands-Posten Foundation

Awards
The European Press Prize is given in five categories. A sixth special award chosen by the jury is optional. Each prize is worth €10,000.

Investigative Reporting Award
This award is given for "discovering and revealing facts, exposing hidden news to the public".

Distinguished Reporting Award
This award honors "exceptional reporting, telling a story in the best possible way". Until 2017, the category was called Distinguished Writing Award. In 2018 the category was renamed Distinguished Reporting Award.

Public Discourse Award
Until 2017, the Commentator Award was given for quality commentary and opinionated journalism. Since 2018, the Opinion Award is given for best commentator or remarkable interpretation.

Innovation Award
This category awards journalists for their inventive or groundbreaking way of storytelling.

Migration Journalism Award
This award is honors each your one "acclaimed example of migration journalism". The award was introduced in 2023 with the support of the Robert Bosch Stiftung.

Special Award
The Special Award is optional for the jury and allows them to single out high quality journalism that they think deserves special recognition. This could be awarded to an individual journalist, news organisation or specific piece of journalism.

European Cartoon Award
In 2019, the European Cartoon Award was founded in cooperation with Studio Europa Maastricht. This new Award aims to promote and encourage European cartoonists, while preserving the endangered form of art and great asset to journalism. The winner of the first edition was the French cartoonist and illustrator Anne Derenne for her cartoon “Jenga – the earth’s sixth mass distinction.”