Looking beyond borders and bubbles — the European Press Prize

Welcome to the first blog from Journalism Track at the ZEG Storytelling Festival!

Hosted by Jennifer Athanasiou-Prins and Aylin Özalp from the European Press Prize, it focused on the way the award can connect people across the continent.

For me, the best part was a video from this year’s awards in Warsaw, showing the friendly, relaxed atmosphere of the night.

Those in the video said it’s important to look beyond borders and bubbles to create a better profession for all of us.

We were introduced to two laureates of the award, who epitomised that sentiment. Ekaterina talked about how she never expected her work on destigmatizing HIV in Russia to win the award.

Christian, whose work on a fire in Budapest won him an award in 2017, agreed the European Press Prize provided a great platform to get stories heard and gain useful contacts.

Both of them were proving that journalism produced in Central and East Europe can compete with pieces produced in larger newsrooms in Western parts of Europe.

Set up seven years ago, the award’s main goal is to help journalists across Europe collaborate. However, the organization is mostly known for its distinguished prizes in categories from investigative reporting to innovation journalism.

It’s useful to know that local newspapers and media organizations can apply for the awards as the only requirement is to be published.

By Karol Bohacova

Follow the live tweets from the event here: