KRIK, CINS and a BIRN team of Jelena Zorić and Vuk Cvijić were selected from many colleagues as this year’s winners for their stories published in 2022.
The jury consisted of Tamara Skrozza a journalist who has worked for radio, press and TV productions and engaged with a number of different media outlets; Snjezana Milivojevic, a professor of public opinion and media studies who chaired doctoral and master’s programs at Bayan College in Oman and the University of Belgrade; and Sasa Lekovic, President of the Investigative Journalism Centre, based in Croatia, a reporter and editor and a licensed investigative reporting trainer and lecturer.
The first prize went to the KRIK team (Stevan Dojčinović, Bojana Jovanović, Milica Vojinović and Ana Adžić) for their stories on the Darko Šarić clan.
The second prize was shared between CINS and BIRN. The CINS team (Stefan Marković, Teodora Ćurčić, Jovana Tomić, Ivana Milosavljević and Vladimir Kostić) was awarded for their stories on political party financing.
Jelena Zorić from BIRN was awarded for her stories about medical malpractice in the sensitive area of psychiatric health.
The third prize went to Vuk Cvijić of NIN for his investigations into the connections between criminal circles and state officials, and CINS/BIRN (Dina Đorđević, Marija Ristić, Jovana Tomić and Saša Dragojlo) for “Paths of Serbian weapons”. Part of this series is the investigation “Serbian Rockets Sent to Myanmar Even After 2021 Coup”, a cross-border collaboration between BIRN, CINS, Myanmar Witness and Lighthouse Reports, originally commissioned at the BIRN Summer School of Investigative Reporting in Dubrovnik in 2021.
Manuel Munteanu, Head of Press and Info and Deputy Head of Political Section of the EU Delegation in Serbia, gave a speech highlighting the importance of independent media and extending congratulations to the winners.
Davor Marko from Thomson Media introduced the project and the importance of the EU awa for supporting investigative journalism in the Western Balkans and Türkiye. Snjezana Milivojevic, representing the jury, provided a detailed explanation of the award selection process and announced the recipients of each awarded position.
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).