EU Awards for best Investigative Journalism in North Macedonia Announced
Journalists from IRL Macedonia (Saska Cvetkovska, Elena Mitrevska Cuckovska, Maja Jovanovska, Trifun Sitnikovski), Frosina Dimeska, Miomir Serafinovic, Snezana Lupevska were selected from many colleagues as this year`s winners for their stories published in 2022.
The jury consisted of Konstantin Testorides, a journalist with more than 40 years of experience based in Skopje, with background as a correspondent for Tanjug News Agency and Associated Press and with a working experience in various news outlets as journalist and editor in TV stations and news agencies; Filip Rudić, a journalist based in Belgrade, currently working for the regional TV channel N1 in Serbia who also won the Anthony Lewis Prize for Exceptional Rule of Law Journalism and was a finalist for the Global Shining Light Award with the Centre for Investigative Journalism of Serbia; and Boris Georgievski, a Macedonian-German journalist currently serving as the Head of the Macedonian Program with the German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW). He worked as a reporter, editor and correspondent for various news outlets and was the winner of the Investigative journalism award in 2008 and the EU Award for investigative journalism 2016.
The first prize went to Saska Cvetkovska, Elena Mitrevska Cuckovska, Maja Jovanovska and Trifun Sitnikovski from IRL Macedonia for their story Bad blood / Нечиста крв which shed light on the treatment of patients in a private hospital in North Macedonia during the COVID-19 epidemic.
Second prize went to Frosina Dimeska from Prizma for the story A fugitive Ukrainian politician under US sanctions received Macedonian citizenship / Избеган украински политичар под санкции на САД, добил македонско државјанство. Following publication of the story, North Macedonia revoked the citizenship of the Ukrainian politician.
Third prize was given to Miomir Serafinovikj and Snezana Lupevska Sozen who did a series of stories: The state did not collect money from a convicted crime, (Un)successful confiscation of Transmet / КОД: Државата не наплати пари од пресудено кривично дело-(Не)успешната конфискација на Трансмет as part of the investigative show KOD broadcasted on TV Telma.
The awards were given by Ambassador David Geer, Head of the Delegation of the European Union who highlighted the importance of investigative journalism. A representative from the jury, Konstantin Testorides, 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).
