Nieuws - New prize for quality journalism

AMSTERDAM - The new European Press Prize will hand out four awards every year to encourage journalism of the highest quality wherever it can be found in our continent.

Seven European foundations, The Guardian Foundation (UK), Thomson Reuters Foundation (UK), Stichting Democratie en Media (NL), Vereniging Veronica (NL), Jyllands-Posten (DK), Politiken (DK) and the Media Development Loan Fund (CZ) will work together to organise and hand out the new European Press Prize. With the initiative they want to "encourage high-quality journalism, in print or online, to help raise journalism's role as a vital defender of democracy's freedoms and as an initiator of a serious European discourse".

In the first year of the Prize, awards will be given in four separate categories.

1. The Editing Award – For the editor who the judges believe has contributed most to public debate and public understanding;
2. The Commentator Award – For the feature writer, columnist or commentator who has done most to illuminate vital issues for his readers;
3. The News Reporting Award – For the reporter or specialist expert whose work has made a decisive impact;
4. The Innovation Award – For the outstanding innovation of the year – in print or via digital: anything that makes a significant contribution to journalism’s future.

Each award consists of € 10,000.

Entries open on July 1 and close on October 26 2012. The winners will be announced in January and have their awards presented at a congress of Europe’s media foundations in the De Balie Debating Centre, Amsterdam, on 26 February, 2013.

Sir Harold Evans, editor-at-large of Thomson Reuters and former editor of London’s Sunday Times will chair the judging panel, which consist of Jørgen Ejbøl, chairman of JP/Politiken Newspapers and former editor of Jyllands-Posten in Copenhagen, Sylvie Kauffmann, editorial director of Le Monde in Paris, Yevgenia Albats, editor of New Times in Moscow and Paolo Flores d’Arcais, one of the most influential philosophers and writers in Italy.