Ten investigations have been shortlisted for the sixth Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for Journalism, the jury announced.
The finalists were chosen from a record 344 submissions from journalists across the 27 European Union countries. Entries were accepted between May 4 and July 31, 2026.
The winner will be announced Oct. 21 at a ceremony in the evening at the European Parliament’s Daphne Caruana Galizia Press Room in Strasbourg. Finalists will attend.
The finalists are:
- “Cuffed, caged, cast away: this is Europe’s ‘innovative solution’ for unwanted migrants,” by De Correspondent (Netherlands), on the detention of migrants in Albania.
- “War Made Sustainable: how green investment funds bankroll the arms industry with EU backing,” coordinated by Voxeurop (France), with El País (Spain), IrpiMedia (Italy) and Mediapart (France).
- “Protagonista Podcast,” by investigace.cz (Czechia).
- “Russian Secrets: How Putin protects his nuclear weapons,” by Norddeutscher Rundfunk, Westdeutscher Rundfunk and Süddeutsche Zeitung (Germany), in collaboration with Le Monde (France), L’Espresso (Italy), the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (U.S.), Kyodo (Japan), NRK (Norway), Pointer (Netherlands), SVT (Sweden), The Times (U.K.) and The Washington Post (U.S.).
- An analysis by indegazette.be (Belgium) finding that Zeebrugge remains Europe’s most important arrival port for Russian polar gas.
- “How Big Tech wrote secrecy into EU law to hide data centres’ environmental toll,” by Investigate Europe, published with partners including Altreconomia (Italy), Die Zeit (Germany), El País (Spain), EU Observer (Belgium), The Guardian (U.K.), The Journal (Ireland), Le Monde (France), Publico (Portugal) and Tech Policy Press (U.S.).
- “Predators on TikTok 2: an open buffet for more than 1,300 paedophiles,” by Maldita.es (Spain).
- “Fake news, real victims,” by Agencia EFE (Spain).
- “Sponsored Hate: How politicians across Central Europe use paid social media ads to attack journalists and civil society, spreading disinformation and hate,” by the Investigative Centre of Ján Kuciak (Slovakia), Investigace.cz (Czechia), Frontstory.pl (Poland) and VSquare.org (Poland).
- “‘They protect the law while breaking it’: Inside Europol’s Shadow IT System,” by Solomon (Greece), CORRECTIV (Germany) and Computer Weekly (U.K.).
A press seminar on the role of journalists and the threats they face will be held earlier the same day. It will give particular attention to the unresolved cases of Caruana Galizia and Ján Kuciak. Vera Politkovskaya, daughter of slain Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, will attend.
Accredited journalists will receive an invitation to both events. Reporters who want to attend the seminar or arrange interviews with speakers and finalists must register by 3 p.m. Oct. 15.
Launched in 2020, the prize is open to professional journalists and teams of any nationality who submit in-depth work published or broadcast by media based in an EU country. An independent jury of press and civil society representatives from the 27 member states, along with representatives of major European journalists’ associations, selects the winner. The award carries 20,000 euros (about $23,000).
Past winners include a Follow the Money investigation into networks enabling Russia’s sanction-evading oil trade (2025); the “Lost in Europe” investigation into missing unaccompanied child migrants (2024); a Solomon-led probe of the Pylos migrant boat shipwreck (2023); a documentary on Russian influence in the Central African Republic (2022); and the Pegasus Project, coordinated by Forbidden Stories (2021).
Caruana Galizia, a Maltese journalist and anti-corruption blogger, reported on corruption, money laundering, organized crime, citizenship sales and the Maltese government’s links to the Panama Papers. She was killed in a car bombing Oct. 16, 2017. Public outcry over the investigation led to the resignation of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. Five people have been imprisoned for carrying out the killing, but the mastermind has not been convicted.
Read more here
