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". +YearAward WinnerPublication2026Michael O'Farrell: "The Brother D conspiracy – Exposing an international child abuse cover-up that left children in Africa exposed to a predator for decades"The Irish Mail on Sunday, Ireland2024Sara Manisera, Daniela Sala:"Iraq Without Water: The Cost of Oil to Italy"Irpi Media, Italy2023Alexander Nabert, Christina Brause, Bryan Bender, Nick Robyns-Early: "Death Weapons: Inside a Teenage Terrorist Network"Welt am Sonntag, Germany2022Paavo Teittinen, Klaus Welp (pictures): "The investigation is closed"Helsingin Sanomat, Finland2021Roman Anin, Alesya Marohovskaya, Irina Dolinina, Dmitry Velikovsky, Roman Shleynov, Sonya Savina, Olesya Shmagun and Denis Dmitriev: "Kirill and Katya: Love, offshores, and administrative resources. How marrying Putin's daughter gave Kirill Shamalov a world of opportunity"IStories, Russia2020Annemarte Moland, Even Kjølleberg and Ruben Solvang: "Trigger Warning"NRK, Norway2019Christo Grozev, Roman Dobrokhotov: "Unmasking the Salisbury Poisoning Suspects: A Four-Part Investigation"Bellingcat, United Kingdom2018 and : "Monsanto Papers"Le Monde, France2017Series of articles on corruption and organized crimeCenter for Investigative Journalism of Serbia, Serbia2016: "Those Who have been Raped raise your hand"Revue XXI, France2015: "How to produce dead guerillas"El País, Spain2014Steve Stecklow, Babak Dehghanpisheh and Yeganeh Torbati: "The Assets of the Ayatollah"Reuters, UK
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. +YearAward WinnerPublication2026Maud Effting, Willem Feenstra: "What the wounds are telling us"De Volkskrant, Netherlands2025Jessica Bateman: "Did Something Happen to Mom When She Was Young?"Politico, United States2024Léa Polverini, Robin Tutenges: "Kazakhstan-Xinjiang, the Border of Tears"Slate.fr, France2023Johannes Böhme: "The travelling tribunal"Die Zeit, Germany2022Bastian Berbner, John Goetz: "What Guantánamo made of them"Die Zeit, Germany2021Janusz Schwertner: "Love in the time of plague"Onet, Poland2020Isobel Cockerell: "The Uyghur women fighting China’s surveillance state"Coda Story, Georgia2019Katrin Kuntz, Marian Blasberg and Christoph Scheuermann: "Fifty-Six Days of Separation"Der Spiegel, Germany2018Michael Obert: "The human catcher"Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, Germany2017Dialika Neufeld: "Step-uncle Sam"Der Spiegel, Germany2016: "The Fear-Sick Ward"Duzy Format (Gazeta Wyborcza), Poland2015Elena Kostyuchenko: "Your husband voluntarily went under fire"Novaya Gazeta, Russia2014Sergey Khazov: "The Man in Orange", "Vietnam Town" and "Forbidden Islam"The New Times magazine, Russia
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. +YearAward WinnerPublication2026Kerstin Kohlenberg: "Not again!"Die Zeit, Germany2025Katarzyna Boni: "Mothers at the End of the World"Książki, Poland2024Nataša Markovič:"We Have Betrayed a Generation"Preiskovalno.si, Media 24, Slovenia2023Alla Konstantinova: "'She lost consciousness as it was happening and she’s actually grateful she did.'" What we know about the rapes perpetrated in Ukraine by Russian soldiersMediazona, Russia2022Peter Pomerantsev: "Memory in the age of impunity"Coda Story, Georgia2021Iván Zsolt Nagy: "When Trianon Hurts Differently"HVG.hu, Hungary2020, "How We Stopped Being Comrades"SME, Slovakia2019: "The end of Atlanticism: had Trump killed the ideology that won the cold war?"The Guardian, United Kingdom2018: "The third shooting of the boy Petar from Konjic"Al Jazeera Balkans, Bosnia and Herzegovina2017Fintan O'Toole for his Brexit columnsThe Observer and The Guardian, United Kingdom2017Gideon Rachman for his commentsFinancial Times, United Kingdom2015Nick Cohen: "The Cowardice of Nigel Farage"The Observer, United Kingdom2014Boris Dežulović: "Vukovar: a Life-Size Monument to the Dead City"Globus, Croatia2013Nikos Chrysoloras: "Greece must remain in the Eurozone"Kathimerini, Greece
Innovation Award This category awards journalists for their inventive or groundbreaking way of storytelling. +YearAward WinnerPublication2026Ángela Bernardo, María Álvarez del Vayo, Carmen Torrecillas, Adrián Maqueda: "Mole or cancer? The algorithm that gets one in three melanomas wrong and erases patients with dark skin"Civio, Spain2025Katharina Brunner, Rebecca Ciesielski, Ingo Dachwitz, Sebastian Meineck, Maximilian Zierer: "Under Surveillance. How Location Data Jeopardizes German Security"Bayerischer Rundfunk/BR24, netzpolitik.org, tagesschau/ARD, Germany2024Vitaly Soldatskikh, Ekaterina Reznikova, Roman Badanin, Katya Arenina, Boris Dubakh:"Lapdogs of War: A Guide to Russia's Wartime Oligarchs"Proekt, Russia2023Juliette Garside, Simon Goodley, Jasper Jolly, Kalyeena Makortoff, Antonio Baquero, Lara Dihmis, Alex Dziadosz, Jared Ferrie, Brian Fitzpatrick, Kevin Hall, Ilya Lozovsky, Eli Moskowitz, Will Neal, Stelios Orphanides, Miranda Patrucic, Olesya Shmagun, Graham Stack, Tom Stocks, Drew Sullivan, Julia Wallace, Jonny Wrate, Jan Strozyk, Lara Dihmis, Misha Gagarin, Karina Shedrofsky, Alina Tsogoeva, Ivana Jeremić, Olena LaFoy, Bojana Pavlović, Dima Stoianov, Romina Colman, Ilia Donskikh, Nathan Jaccard, James O’Brien, Edin Pašović, Mark Nightingale: "Russian Asset Tracker"OCCRP, The Guardian, Anti-Corruption Data Collective, Bird.bg, Delfi Estonia, Follow the Money, Forbes, Frontstory.pl, infoLibre, Inside Story, Investigative Center of Jan Kuciak, Investigace.cz, IrpiMedia, MANS, Miami Herald, Le Monde, NDR, Oštro, profil, Re:Baltica, Reporter.lu, Siena.lt, SVT, Tamedia, De Tijd, Transparency International UK2022Jose Miguel Calatayud, Adriana Homolova, Hendrik Lehmann, Brigitte Alfter, David Meidinger, Benedikt Brandhofer, Nikolas Zöller, Alexandra Siebenhofer, Steven Vanden Bussche, Gaby Khazalová, Bo Elkjær, Alexander Abdelilah, Sotiris Sideris, Lois Kapila, Alice Facchini, Peter Hendriks, Steinar Rostad Breivik, Micael Pereira, Peter Sabo, Manuel Gabarre, Christian Zeier, Catherine McShane, Nikolas Leontopoulos, Alexia Barakou, Moritz Wienert, Benedikt Hebeisen, Christoph Trautvetter, Elisabeth Lind, Jakub Nakládal, Mathieu Périsse, Anna Thewalt, Helena Wittlich, Sinan Recber, Sidney Gennies, Manuel Kostrzynski, Lorenzo Bagnoli, Hans Jordheim, Sara Pinho: "Cities for Rent"Arena for Journalism in Europe, ORF, Apache, Deník Referendum, Mediapart, Der Tagesspiegel, AthensLive, Reporters United, Dublin Inquirer, IrpiMedia, E24, Expresso, elDiario.es, Reflekt, Republik, Ctxt.es, Follow The Money2021Maldita.es' WhatsApp Chatbot to thrive a fact-checking operation on disinformationMaldita.es, Spain2020How Decât o Revistă organized an all-team pop-up newsroom in TransylvaniaDecât o Revistă, Romania2019Guillermo Abril and , "Palmyra, the other side"Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, Germany; El País, Spain2018Megan Lucero, Maeve McClenaghan, Gareth Davies, Charles Boutaud, Kirsty Styles for their project Bureau LocalBureau of Investigative Journalism, United Kingdom2017Christiaan Triebert: "The Turkish Coup through the Eyes of its Plotters"Bellingcat, The Netherlands2016Raquel Moleiro, Hugo Franco and Joana Beleza: "Killing and Dying for Allah - Five Portuguese Members of Islamic State"Expresso, Portugal2015Nicolas Kayser-Bril, Jacopo Ottaviani, Sylke Gruhnwald, Jean-Marc Manach, Jens Finnäs, Daniele Grasso, Katerina Stauroula, Alessio Cimarelli, Andrea Nelson Mauro, Alice Kohli: "The Migrant Files: Surveying migrants' deaths at Europe's door"The Migrants' Files, Italy, Switzerland, France, Sweden, Spain and Greece2014Paul Lewis (journalist): "Reading the Riots"The Guardian, United Kingdom
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. +YearAward WinnerPublication2026Lydia Emmanouilidou, Corina Petridi, Luděk Stavinoha, Stavros Malichudis, May Bulman, Iliana Papangeli, Galatia Iatraki, Lorenz Naegeli, Osama Abdullah, Lukas Haeuptli: "Unaccompanied children sleep on the floor in shifts in Greece’s ‘Model Camps’. The EU is aware"Solomon, Greece, Republik, Switzerland, WAV Recherchekollektiv, Switzerland2025Gabriela Galvin: "Growing Up ‘Non-Western’ in Denmark's Nanny State"New Lines Magazine, International2024Andrei Popoviciu:"How Europe Outsourced Border Enforcement to Africa"In These Times, Leonard C. Goodman Institute for Investigative Reporting, International, United States2023Maartje Bakker, César Dezfuli: "The long road to a home in Europe"De Volkskrant, Netherlands
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.