Đurđa Radulović, Olivera Lakic, Dejan Milovac, Vladimir Otasevic, Jovo Martinovic, Marko Vešović and Andras Kiraly were selected from many colleagues as this year’s winners for their stories published in 2022 exposing offshore companies, healthcare and corruption in the justice system in Montenegro.
The jury consisted of Tena Perisin, Professor at the University of Zagreb with a working experience in CNN, who led projects like HRT news program digitisation and founded Student Television and the first Journalism Research Laboratory in the region; Nataša Ružić, an academic and a journalist who worked as a journalist at Radio Golos Rossii and as editor-in-chief of the youth paper Zerkalo; Boro Kontic, awarded journalist and Director of the Media Center in Sarajevo.
The first prize went to Đurđa Radulović from CIN-CG for her article “Silence Surrounding Violence – Maternity Wards Violate WHO Recommendations”.
The second prize went to Olivera Lakic of Libertas Press for her series of articles on corruption in the Montenegrin judicial system and on crime and corruption within Montenegrin police structures.
The third prize was divided between Dejan Milovac from NVO MANS for his investigation into the Pandora Papers, revealing Russian offshore millions invested in luxury real estate in Montenegro, and Vladimir Otasevic, Jovo Martinovic, Marko Vešović and Andras Kiraly (Istraživački portal LUPA, RTV Nikšić) for their story, “Secret E-gambling Affair”.
Oana Cristina Popa, Head of the EU Delegation to Montenegro, greeted the participants via a video message highlighting the importance of the awards and investigative journalism. The jury members presented their decisions and announced the awardees.
More information can be found here.
The EU Award for Investigative Journalism 2023 is part of the project “Strengthening Quality Journalism in Western Balkans and Türkiye II”. This aims to recognise and promote outstanding achievements in investigative journalism as well as improve the visibility of quality journalism in the Western Balkans and Türkiye.
The project is funded by the European Union and it is implemented by a consortium composed of Balkan Investigative Reporting Network – BIRN Hub, Central European University (CEU) – Hungary, the Association of Journalists (AJ) – Türkiye, Thomson Media (TM) – Germany, University Goce Delcev Stip (UGD) – North Macedonia, The Independent Union of Journalists and Media Workers (SSNM) – North Macedonia, Media Association of South-East Europe (MASE) – Montenegro, and Balkan Investigative Reporting Network Kosovo (BIRN Kosovo).