Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence Shortlisted for European Press Prize

In order to encourage regional networking among journalists and advance balanced coverage on topics that are central to the region as well as to the European Union, the Robert Bosch Stiftung and the ERSTE Foundation, in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, have initiated the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence programme in 2007.

Each year, ten Balkan journalists are competitively chosen to receive funding and professional support to conduct their own research project.

Adrian Mogos, a Romanian journalist and Fellowship alumni, has been also nominated in the News Reporting  Award category, for the reporter or specialist expert whose work has made a decisive impact.

Awards will be also made in two further categories – the Editing Award and the Commentator Award.

The idea for the awards was born in 2011 when representatives of seven European media foundations joined forces to launch the European Press Prize in order to reward excellence in journalism across all 47 European countries. They agreed that launching the awards would encourage high-quality, innovative and independent journalism.

Each award carries a prize of 10,000 euros, to be spent wherever possible on a personal project that may in turn enrich the practice of journalism.

The winners will be announced later this month by the jury which is chaired by veteran British journalist and editor Sir Harold Evans, and the awards will be presented on February 26 at the De Balie Debating Centre in Amsterdam.