Jury IJ4EU Impact Award 2024 announced

The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), a partner in the IJ4EU Fund, has announced the five jury members of the fourth annual IJ4EU Impact Award.

The jury, consisting of renowned journalists and advocates of press freedom, plays an important role in recognizing and honoring the most impactful, groundbreaking and innovative research published between October 2022 and December 2023 through its insights.

The jury met earlier in August 2024 to carefully review all nominations and determine the winners for this year’s awards. After thorough deliberations, they selected three outstanding winners whose work exemplifies the highest standards in collaborative, cross-border journalism. The winners will be announced on 26 September during an awards ceremony at IJ4EU’s annual UNCOVERED conference, in partnership with the iMEdD International Journalism Forum in Athens.

DISCOVERED 2024

These are the jury members of the IJ4EU Impact Award 2024.

Paul Caruana Galizia became a journalist at Tortoise after his mother was murdered and has since won an Orwell Prize special award, a British Journalism Award and Press Award and other honours for his reporting. Along with his brothers, he has received a Magnitsky Human Rights Award and an Anderson-Lucas-Norman Award for his campaign to get justice for Daphne. His book A Death in Malta won the Overseas Press Club’s Cornelius Ryan Award.

Nik Williams is a Glasgow-based media freedom and free speech campaigner, currently contributing to Index on Censorship’s work on SLAPPs, digital rights and transnational repression. He is co-chair of the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition and convener of the Scottish Anti-SLAPP Working Group. At ECPMF he coordinated the inaugural year of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), which responds to media freedom violations in Europe. Previously, Nik led Scottish PEN’s campaigning and advocacy work, focusing on libel reform, free speech, digital rights and surveillance policy. Nik is also co-chair of the investigative journalism co-operative The Ferret.

Gabriela Manuli is Deputy Director of the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN), an association of 244 non-profit organizations in 90 countries dedicated to investigative journalism. In 2019, she co-founded the GIJN Women Group, a network created to discuss issues related to women and non-binary investigative journalists. Originally from Argentina (and currently based in Budapest, Hungary), she has been a journalist for over 20 years (working in radio, TV, magazines and newspapers) and has extensive international experience in Latin America, Europe and the United States.

Christoffel Hird is the founder and managing director of Dartmouth Films, which has pioneered new ways of financing, producing and distributing documentaries in the UK. A former investment analyst in the City, he has worked as a journalist for the Economist, Daily Mail, New Statesman and Sunday Times, where he was editor of Insight. He is a former editor of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the author of Investigative journalism works: the mechanism of impact.

Saranda Ramaj has worked for Koha Ditore newspaper since 2013. Her reporting covers government procurement, the justice system, and corruption in healthcare. Saranda systematically develops complex investigations in these areas, exposing irregularities, corruption, and organized crime. With her stories, she has also prevented the signing of illegal tenders worth millions, which were mainly policy-related companies. In her nine years as a journalist, she has won 19 awards for investigative journalism. Saranda was named Journalist of the Year 2022 in Kosovo. Since 2016, Saranda has also conducted various investigations with national and international non-profit organizations, particularly in the areas of health policy and human rights.

10 selected studies