European Commission: Lorenzo Natali Media Prize 2022

Objective

The Lorenzo Natali Media Prize was launched in 1992 to recognise and celebrate excellence in journalism on the issues of inequality, poverty eradication, sustainable development, environment, biodiversity, climate action, digital (gap, connectivity, e-governance, entrepreneurship), jobs and employment, education and skills development, migration, healthcare (access, assistance), peace, democracy and human rights.

The #NataliPrize was created by the European Commission and named after Lorenzo Natali, a precursor to the international partnerships approach to global challenges impacting society.

Themes and categories

The Lorenzo Natali Media Prize rewards excellent and courageous reporting on the issues of

inequality,
poverty eradication,
sustainable development,
environment, biodiversity, climate action,
digital (gap, connectivity, e-governance, entrepreneurship),
jobs and employment,
education and skills development,
migration,
healthcare (access, assistance), and
peace, democracy and human rights.

Applicants must choose one of the three categories when filling in the online form.

The Prize is open to journalists in the following three categories:

Grand Prize: brave reporting published by a media based in one of the European Union’s partner countries.
Europe Prize: published by a media based in the European Union (not including the United Kingdom).
Best Emerging Journalist Prize: open to journalists under 30 at the time of publication whose reporting was published by a media based in the European Union (not including the United Kingdom) or in one of its partner countries.

Eligibility

Publication period

Entries must have been published (an online version must be accessible) or broadcasted (radio or television with an online version accessible) between 10 March 2021 and 9 March 2022.

Language requirements

The Prize admits submissions in all languages accompanied by a translation in English, French, Spanish, German or Portuguese when these are not the original languages of the reporting. The entries in languages other than English, French, Spanish, German or Portuguese will only be evaluated on the basis of the translated texts.

Length

For text-based entries, the length limit is 2,300 words. Video and audio entries can be up to 15 minutes long.

Geographic eligibility

The location of the media outlet where the reporting was published determines the geographic eligibility of your application. The outlet’s office must be based in an eligible country. For example, reporting published in Reuters India is eligible, while reporting published in Reuters USA is not. The full list of eligible countries is here.

Author(s)

Submitted reporting can have one or several authors. The participants must be the authors and holders of the copyright and the moral rights of their work. Plagiarism, which includes the unauthorised use of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own, will result in disqualification. Retrospective discovery of plagiarism will result in revocation of title of winners.

Previous winners

21 winners cannot compete again for the 2022 Prize but are eligible for subsequent editions. The Prize Secretariat reserves the right to disqualify any entry that contains hurtful, misleading, libellous or vulgar content, or that contains any material that could constitute or encourage conduct which would be considered a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any national or international law.

Prize

There will be up to three winners. Categories will not be awarded if quality is not met. Each winner will receive 10,000 €. The winner of the Best Emerging Journalist category will also be offered a work experience opportunity with a media partner.

The winners will be invited to participate in the Online Award Ceremony (date tbc).

Timeline

Apply via our online form between 15 February and 31 March 2022 23:59 CET.

The entries will go through a pre-selection phase carried out by five journalism schools. The top pre-selected entries will then be judged by an independent Grand Jury, composed of renowned names of the journalism community. The decision of the Grand Jury shall be final and irrevocable.

Winners will be announced at the Online Award Ceremony during the 2022 European Development Days.