The #AllForJan Award recognizes journalists in Central and Eastern Europe for exceptional and courageous journalistic material with a high social impact and for innovative ways of communicating stories to the public. The award commemorates the global #AllForJan movement that emerged following the death of Ján Kuciak, a young investigative journalist from Slovakia who was murdered in 2018.
Journalists nominated in this year’s #AllForJan Award:
Cristian A. Leonte – Romanian journalist. His article for the Romanian service Info Sud Est about the Danube Delta was nominated for the #AllForJan Award. His journalistic investigation revealed the misuse of hundreds of millions of euros of European funds to invest in the Danube Delta. As a result of the editorial’s investigation, the European Commission froze funding for at least 50 projects, part of a €1.1 billion investment, in July 2021.
Andrei Popoviciu is an independent Romanian journalist writing about human rights, conflict, migration and foreign affairs. His articles have appeared in The Guardian, Al Jazeera English, Libération, Der Spiegel, among others. The nominated article first appeared in The Guardian and is the result of a journalistic investigation into the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers at EU borders.
Peter Sabo – a journalist from Slovakia who joined the editorial team of Aktuality.sk a few months after Jan Kuciak’s murder, looking to continue the investigations started by the young journalist. He found himself on the list of nominees for the #AllForJan award due to an article from an international journalist investigating a money laundering scandal. As it showed after two years of investigation, 160 million euros flowed from Slovakia to China. The article, prepared in cooperation with Investigace.cz Centre and Investigative Centre of Jan Kuciak, was first published on the Slovak website Aktuality.sk.
The announcement of the winner of this year’s competition and the #AllForJan Award will take place on 23 February during the international Media For Freedom Summit. The day-long conference, dedicated to contemporary threats to free and independent media, will be held this year under the theme “Media Hacking. A New Frontier in the War for Democracy.” World legends of investigative journalism will speak about the role of legislation and technology in ensuring media independence: Carl Bernstein of The Washington Post, discoverer of the Watergate scandal and Pulitzer winner, Carole Cadwalladr of The Guardian, discoverer of the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal, Matthew Caruana Galizia and Roman Anin, Pulitzer winners for the Panama Papers, Laurent Richard, European Pulitzer winner for the Pegasus Project.
Additional guest speakers will include: Mark Brzezinski, the new U.S. Ambassador to Poland (his first public appearance in his new role), Sophie Zhang, Facebook whistleblower, Galina Timchenko, CEO of Russia’s largest independent portal Meduza, Szabolcs Panyi, Hungarian investigative journalist from Direkt36 who was tracked by Pegasus, and Erich Kron, former head of digital security in the U.S. military. In total, the conference will feature more than 40 speakers from around the world.
Prominent journalists and editors from global media outlets from the US, Europe and Asia – Guardian, New York Times, Financial Times, CNN, Politico, Welt, Bild and senior NGO representatives – have also accepted the invitation to the event: Reuters Institute, Mass Media Defence Centre, Article 19, Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe, Reporters Without Borders.
The organizers of the Media For Freedom Summit are the European Magazine and Media Association (EMMA) and the European Newspaper Publishers’ Association (ENPA). Event partners are: Reuters Institute, POLITICO Europe, European Center for Press and Media Freedom, European Federation of Journalism, Association of German Magazine Publishers, Sektor 3.0, Digital Media Campus, Ringier Axel Springer Polska, Ring Publishing.
More here: allforjanaward.com, mediaforfreedom.org