The Award includes two sections – "Professional Journalists" (4.000 EUR prize) and "Young Journalists" up to 30 years of age (1.000 EUR prize). Candidates from Albania, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine are welcome to apply.
In the section "Professional Journalists", candidates should have been actively engaged in investigative reporting over the last two years and should still be active in journalism. For the section "Young Journalists", candidates should have published at least one investigative story meeting all professional standards.
Candidates are to be nominated by distinguished individuals, journalism and media organisations, media companies, civil society organisations, journalism schools or universities, trade unions or other social organisations from the target countries. The nominator should write a letter of recommendation and inform the nominee in order to make sure to provide all necessary documents for the application.
Applications will be examined by an international jury made up of journalists and media experts. The jury will take into account the relevance of the matters covered by the reports, which should have a focus on the target countries, as well as the quality of reporting in terms of documentation, data, writing and production. The personal risks taken while performing the duties as well as the impact on society will also be evaluated.
Applications must be submitted by e-mail by 30 May 2014 to press@cei.int.
Call for applications and application form are available online.
The Award will officially be granted on occasion of the South East Europe Media Forum in October 2014. In the previous years, the Award has been assigned to Drago Hedl from Croatia (2008), Besar Likmeta from Albania (2009), Adrian Mogoş from Romania (2010), Włodzmierz Kalicki from Poland (2011), Matej Šurc and Blaž Zgaga from Slovenia (2012), Mahir Šahinović from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Rosen Tsvetkov from Bulgaria (2013).
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