Parliament award the 2022 Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for Journalism in a ceremony. Anthony BELLANGER, Secretary-General of the International Federation of Journalists speaks before the announcement of 2022 winner, two journalists, Clément Di Roma and Carol Valade for their documentary “The Central African Republic under Russian influence”. Pina PICIERNO (S&D, IT), EP Vice-President closes the ceremony. The prize rewards outstanding journalism that promotes or defends EU core principles and values. This transcription is a result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.Details

Award Ceremony of the Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for Journalism 2022: Announcement of 2022 winner - Clément Di Roma and Carol Valade for their documentary “The Central African Republic under Russian influence”

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<p>SOUNDBITE (French), Anthony BELLANGER, Secretary-General of the International Federation of Journalists, Good evening. President of the European Parliament, Vice President of the European Parliament. Ladies and gentlemen, members of the jury. Dear colleagues and Europe as a whole, because I'm sure many of you are friends of our union, the International Federation of Journalists, Spain, Hungary, Denmark and Estonia, Hungary. </p>

SOUNDBITE (French), Anthony BELLANGER, Secretary-General of the International Federation of Journalists, Ladies and gentlemen, members of the European Press Club. Dear Lauren, as Secretary-General of the International Federation of Journalists, a representative of more than ,00000 journalists, spread over 150 countries over the world. I am delighted to be here on behalf of the jury this year for this second edition of the Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for journalism. As we've already said many time, Daphne was brutally assassinated five years ago now in Malta.

SOUNDBITE (French), Anthony BELLANGER, Secretary-General of the International Federation of Journalists, Daphne gave her life for carrying out her simple mission last Friday. two brothers, George and Alfred DiGiorgio, were found guilty of murder and criminal conspiracy and were sentenced to 40 years in prison. A third man had earlier been sentenced to 15 years in prison. But in spite of our efforts to find the truth about this, assassination, those who ordered the killing are still not yet and probably will never be found by the Maltese justice system. That is despite our various questions about the progress of the enquiry. But we will never give up just as we will not give up on the fate of the 2018 journalist assassinated across the world.

SOUNDBITE (French), Anthony BELLANGER, Secretary-General of the International Federation of Journalists, And indeed, this prize could bear no other name than that of Daphne for all of the work that she carried out for the investigation she carried out. And it is to recall across the world that since January 22, 54 journalists have been assassinated, that six a month, and that simply for doing their job, fulfilling their journalistic mission today across all regions of the world, providing independent free information is to take a risk is to receive threats, intimidation, to be harassed, especially as female journalists.

SOUNDBITE (French), Anthony BELLANGER, Secretary-General of the International Federation of Journalists, However, journalism is a public good and it is for the public good. It is firmly attached to democracy, to our values, to our principles, values and principles that are defended here. As Madam Vice President recalled in this room, which bears Daphne's name and one of the key rights of citizens is indeed to be well-informed. Since its creation in 1926, the foundation of journalists has created links between journalists and quality journalism one almost a hundred years after its foundation.

SOUNDBITE (French), Anthony BELLANGER, Secretary-General of the International Federation of Journalists, These subjects are still our key concerns, and we here tonight in Strasbourg see why this is important. International solidarity is, of course, something that we're working intensely with, with our union members in Ukraine, Afghanistan, the Philippines. I can't talk about everything we are doing today, but too few of us been speaking about Yemen or simply speaking about Mexico, which is still the most dangerous country in the world for journalism today.

SOUNDBITE (French), Anthony BELLANGER, Secretary-General of the International Federation of Journalists, Quality journalism. I said this is the cornerstone of the International Federation of Journalists across the world. And this is common ground that we have with the two hundred candidates that sent in their submissions for the Daphne Caruana Galizia prise, 200 candidates from 27 countries across the European Union.

SOUNDBITE (French), Anthony BELLANGER, Secretary-General of the International Federation of Journalists, With my colleagues who are here in this room who sit on the European jury with me. For us, it was very difficult to make a choice out of so many submissions, very difficult because they were of a very high standard. And the topics that they covered were really essential topics. But doing journalism, as I said last year in Brussels, is also to make choices. And our votes eventually went to a remarkable work, not just for its content, but also this breadth of its scope.

SOUNDBITE (French), Anthony BELLANGER, Secretary-General of the International Federation of Journalists, Last year I handed out this first D. C. Caruana Prize, a prize to my colleagues and as the vice president and president RECALDE, Sandrine and Laurent were given this prise for their work on the Pegasus files and fortunately, they're not able to be here as they're dealing with an emergency situation in Colombia following the assassination of one of our colleagues. And so they are continuing the investigative work carried out by this journalist that they did when they created Pegasus Forbidden Stories.

SOUNDBITE (French), Anthony BELLANGER, Secretary-General of the International Federation of Journalists, And so we chose from the 200 candidates and we decided to highlight the best submissions, the best reports out of all of these very good submissions. I will give you the names, the moment we've all been waiting for to announce the winner of the 2022, Daphne Caruana Galizia Prise for journalism. Now, there are two names on this. Two journalists, Clement Di Roma and Carol Valade.

SOUNDBITE (French), Anthony BELLANGER, Secretary-General of the International Federation of Journalists, Carol and Clément made a documentary called "Central Africa - The Russian Soft Power. "They are permanent foreign correspondents. They have both been in Africa for several years now in particular, and Central Africa in Rwanda. And so they're close to what's happening on the ground and they're close to our reality, that is, of journalists in general. The documentary was broadcast on eight, and it went along with a article published in Le Monde,

SOUNDBITE (French), Anthony BELLANGER, Secretary-General of the International Federation of Journalists, And it was about various things. Firstly, Russian government propaganda in Africa, which supports the regime, Central African Republic in particular, but also in Sahel countries. The Russian government uses various means to seek influence on the African continent, including supporting various meaning that they're supported by various states within the United Nations. It's what's described as neo colonisation of Russia, following France's colonisation of Central Africa, in particular when it comes to the mining resources present in this country like China has done in other African countries.

SOUNDBITE (French), Anthony BELLANGER, Secretary-General of the International Federation of Journalists, So when it's when it deals with these underground resources, we can see that certain rights are taken away. Of course, human rights and freedom of expression are collateral damage in this neo colonisation and unfortunately, too mainstream, too few mainstream media sources are looking at this. So thank you to you both for your work on the ground and for the daily work you put in.

SOUNDBITE (French), Anthony BELLANGER, Secretary-General of the International Federation of Journalists, We're seeing a new world order emerge and all journalist, not only so-called investigative journalists, contribute to help our understanding as a society as a whole about this new world. And so you are to be congratulated, of course, as winners of the Second Africa Chronicle. It's your prise for journalism and also for representing and to represent also her colleague. It will be Carole that takes the prise today.

SOUNDBITE (French), Carol VALADE, Thank you. Thank you very much. President, vice president. Thank you. Thank you. I'm speaking on behalf of my colleague as well. We made this documentary together and came up very much regrets not being able to be here, but is currently in Rwanda rather than having a break. He's busy working on the Great Lakes region and on Central Africa in general.

SOUNDBITE (French), Carol VALADE, So thank you. First of all, to the jury. Thank you to the European Parliament for this prize. Thank you. To those in authority who also trusted us to make this first medium format. Thank you to x who were involved in editing, producing the documentary. We'd like to thank our RFI, TV5 Monde, ARTE and others. Thank you to all of the media outlets that have circulated our work.

SOUNDBITE (French), Carol VALADE, They continue to provide information on the most far flung corners of the world. Thank you to our colleagues from the Central African Republic and to the correspondents in Central Africa who worked with us. And thank you to the family of Daphne Caruana, glitzier as well as five years after her assassination. Her name is as inspiring as ever, if not indeed more inspiring.

SOUNDBITE (French), Carol VALADE, Hundreds of us, day in and day out are doing our best to live up to her memory and to pay tribute to her honour. It's a huge honour to receive. This award is, of course, a significant responsibility as well, given this significant name, which it bears. Of course, we wanted to dedicate this to our colleagues who have lost their life while carrying out their work.

SOUNDBITE (French), Carol VALADE, Our colleague was assassinated a few days ago in Colombia, also Ukraine, Syria, Mali and in the central African Republic in particular, because that's where we spent a great deal of time preparing this document. x was killed there while reporting in 2014 and spring, and three Russian journalists were assassinated in August 2013 while they were investigating the Wagner group's activities. And justice has still not been done in that case. Their families are still waiting for justice to be done. We commemorate them and this prise becomes all the more significant. In that context,.

SOUNDBITE (French), Carol VALADE, I would like to say that in a sense, it does send out a message to all of those who threaten media freedom, saying to them, well, you may kill a journalist, but there will be dozens and dozens of others taking over from them. And continuing their work where they were forced to stop. And for that reason, we're also thinking of our our colleagues all over the world right now who are still investigating in difficult places, particularly our colleagues in Africa who are under pressure and a whole host of different countries.

SOUNDBITE (French), Carol VALADE, But they persist and they continue to work despite everything that they face. We're also thinking of the vital work of the other finalists for this Daphne Caruana glitzier prise for journalism. Investigative journalism really lies at the very heart of our profession. Sometimes entertainment pushes that a little bit out of the limelight. You've chosen to give this award to two journalists who are really in the front line of investigative journalism.

SOUNDBITE (French), Carol VALADE, And we thinking of all of our journalists who persists despite the fact that our working conditions are constant, becoming more and more difficult, and we face enormous challenges left, right and centre. And of course, this kind of story can only be told because there are journalists who go out into the field who live there and who do their work there. And the representatives, the press should be treated in a dignified and appropriate fashion.

SOUNDBITE (French), Carol VALADE, Now war is raging in Europe. All eyes are on Ukraine. But you have decided to turn your gaze to Africa to another very important front that is not so much in the limelight where another battle is unfolding in the military sphere, but also in terms of disinformation. Since Russian mercenaries have arrived in the Central African Republic, freedom of expression has been undermined. Free press is a way to constitute a bulwark against oppression, and that is why the press are so much in under pressure and in the firing line in many cases.

SOUNDBITE (French), Carol VALADE, it's very important to focus on these issues. The European public knows little about these men and women in these countries, their importance in our collective history since the era of colonisation up until today. And they know even less about the kind of drama that's currently on folding in various different corners of the continent and particular democracy and respect for human rights.

SOUNDBITE (French), Carol VALADE, And these fundamental universal values of Europe are being pushed back. Totalitarianism is taking hold. Russia is beginning to represent an alternative model for some. And I think that should give everybody pause for thought because that really represents failure at the global level. Acting and reacting is vital.

SOUNDBITE (French), Carol VALADE, We need to act to defend our values and our principles and also to respond to the expectations of so many people who flee and often die at the gates of Europe. Just like my colleague Climo, we wish to go back to Africa as soon as possible to bear witness to the fate of those who face war, who faced war for decades but do not lose hope. That appears all the more important because with the war in Ukraine, we feel that we are more effective because of the geographical  proximity and we tend to have a rather narrow perspective in the light of that.

SOUNDBITE (French), Carol VALADE, The role of journalists is also to extend that perspective, to look at what's happening in further flung parts of the world so that we don't just indulge in navel gazing. We need to counteract that. Thank you.

Award Ceremony of the Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for Journalism 2022: Announcement of 2022 winner - Clément Di Roma and Carol Valade for their documentary “The Central African Republic under Russian influence”

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