Parliament award the 1st Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize. The Prize reward ooutstanding journalism that promotes or defends the core principles and values of the European Union such as human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, rule of law, and human rights. Parliament’s journalism prize has been awarded to the Pegasus Project that revealed government spying on journalists, politicians and others. On behalf of the 29 members of the jury, Anthony Bellanger, the Secretary General of the International Federation of Journalists, presented the prize to Sandrine Rigaud and Laurent Richard, representing the consortium behind the Pegasus Project. Extracts of the ceremony and statements of Anthony BELLANGER, Laurent RICHARD and of the EP President David SASSOLI.

freedom of press and media (T)

SASSOLI, David Maria (S&D, IT, S&D, IT)

Daphne Caruana Galizia prize for journalism (T)

Award Ceremony celebrating the winner of the first edition of the Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for Journalism: extracts from the ceremony and statements

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, The European Parliament promoted and entitled this prize to Daphne Caruana Galizia to honor her memory and to aknowledge excellent journalism.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President , Daphne Caruana was an investigative journalist and blogger, who wanted to shed some light on things that other people wanted to keep hidden. From what we know about her job, she asked tough questions, and she also had the courage and the perseverance of keeping going and dig further, also when she was threatened. She was an extraordinary journalist, who did a great job, a fighter for democracy and freedom, to help comunities and citizens in building their own opinion. 

SOUNDBITE (French), Anthony BELLANGER, General Secretary of International Federation of Journalists, To choose is also the work of journalists, so we made a choice and took the best project out of the very good ones. The choice was difficult but easy at the same time, as Forbidden stories decided to continue the work of Daphne Caruana Galizia when she was murdered in 2017.

SOUNDBITE (French), Anthony BELLANGER, General Secretary of International Federation of Journalists, Being within the European Parliament is also the symbol of democracy. And the journalist and the journalism are two symbols of democracy. The European Parliament has put all its effort into organising this international prize, and we obviously remember that the President of the European Parliament himself was a journalist for many years in Italy, and so this is a small nod to his previous career and also a big nod to current journalism, which is in real danger. As you know, there are roughly 65 journalists who are murdered every year around the world. One of our biggest problems and our biggest worries is for those who are still there and who receive threats on a daily basis.

SOUNDBITE (English), Laurent RICHARD, Winner - Founder of Forbidden Stories consortium (behind the Pegasus Project), The Pegasus project was a massive international and cross-border investigation involving 18 reporters from 16 news organisations with the participation of Amnesty International's Security Lab. And all of us, we were investigating the misuse of this spyware called Pegasus against human rights defenders, journalists, political opponents, head of states in many countries. So we received this award for that collaborative effort and this investigation was about these threats against democracies with that kind of use of spyware.

SOUNDBITE (English), Laurent RICHARD, Winner - Founder of Forbidden Stories consortium (behind the Pegasus Project), First, it was a very dangerous project and difficult project because we were investigating people who were spying on journalists and human rights defenders. So it was difficult in terms of confidentiality to run this project under the radar for a very long time. Then it's extremely very important because it tells you about how democracy is going to be threatened by that kind of misuse of this spyware. But the most challenging thing is to have accountability and transparency from states, and even within the EU, we still need answers from some states who are part of the European Union on the use of Pegasus.

SOUNDBITE (English), Laurent RICHARD, Winner - Founder of Forbidden Stories consortium, Being a journalist today is extremely dangerous worldwide and even within the EU. And when we look back at the past 4 years in Malta, in Slovakia, in the Netherlands, in Greece, being journalist could be extremely dangerous. And the Pegasus project is so telling the way how some states and some intelligence services are threatening, surveilling, monitoring the activity of journalists. So, the situation is quite concerning and receiving this award here makes a lot of sense.