European Parliament to award Daphne Caruana Galizia prize for journalism

The European Parliament will be awarding The Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for Journalism on a annual basis from October next year, as the result of an initiative by MEP David Casa.

The prize will be awarded for pieces on topics of interest linked to European values resulting from in-depth journalism undertaken by professional journalists or teams of journalists.

The date of the award ceremony will be around 16 October, as a symbolic reminder of the date when Caruana Galizia was assassinated.

The new prize has been approved by the European Parliament’s Bureau as a result of a proposal by MEP David Casa within Parliament’s administration. Casa spearheaded this award both during the meetings of Parliament’s Bureau, as well as during Parliament’s Working Party for Information and Communication Policy meetings.

“Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia’s legacy will remain alive, as she will now be remembered every year during the ceremony of the Prize for Journalism. This month, it will be 36 months since she was murdered. However, her presence, her stories and her legacy live on, in Malta, in Gozo, and even in the European Parliament,” Casa said in a statement.

The MEP worked with Parliament’s President David Sassoli as well as the vice-presidents to lay out the rules for this prize which ensure transparency and accountability.

The prize will distinguish outstanding journalism work based on the principles and values of the EU.

Further to The Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for Journalism, a few days after her assassination in 2017, the European Parliament named the media room in Strasbourg ‘The Daphne Caruana Galizia Hall’, in which daily press conferences are held during the Strasbourg Plenary Session.