The shortlist for the Fetisov Journalism Awards 2024 has been revealed. It comprises 36 projects created by journalists from more than 25 countries around the world. 16 of the shortlisted projects are team projects, with 7 cross-border investigations among them.
In total, more than 400 entries from 89 countries were submitted to this year's contest. Journalists from 140 countries have participated in the contest since its launch.
We would like to thank the members of the FJA Expert Panel for their time, expertise and thoughtful consideration during the assessment process.
At the next stage of the competition, the FJA Jury will determine the winning projects. The names of the winners will be announced at the 6th Annual Awards Ceremony in April 2025.
The first prize-winner in each category will receive a money prize of CHF 100,000, while the second and third prize-winners will receive CHF 20,000 and CHF 10,000 respectively. The total prize fund for the awards is CHF 520,000.
Congratulations and good luck to all the shortlisted nominees for the Fetisov Journalism Awards 2024!
The shortlist is presented below.
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“I must say that this year it was particularly difficult to make a choice due to the high quality of all the articles submitted. Some of them were made by big and well-known media with big teams of journalists and others by solo journalists. Some articles had more of a multimedia presence and others were more straightforward. This year the variety of topics covered is immense. In short, all of them, even those left out of the list, have a lot of value.”
Vanina Berghella
Regional Director for Latin America & the Caribbean
International Fund for Public Interest Media
FJA Expert Council Member
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"It has been an honor to be part of the selection process for stories from around the world, written with great dedication by high-caliber authors, which have had a significant positive impact on the communities where they were published."
Xhelal Neziri
PhD Candidate, Investigative Journalist & Analyst
President of the BIRC Institute
FJA Expert Council Member
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“It is always an honor to have the opportunity to review entries for the Fetisov Journalism Awards. Even though it is a lot of work, I have enjoyed reading the diverse and powerful stories submitted. Honestly, it is inspiring to see such commitment to truth telling by some of the best investigative journalists around the world.”
Ntibinyane A. Ntibinyane
Assistant Professor – Journalism, MacEwan University, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Writer-in-Residence, Trent University (2023-2024)
Research Fellow, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford
FJA Expert Council Member
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“As usual, many good articles were read. It was difficult to evaluate. The materials submitted show that journalists as frontline human rights defenders look at the serious violations and raise the issues to deliver their voices in their societies and attract the attention of the decision makers. It is heartbreaking to read the journalism works about migrants' rights which are in the center of the UN, countries and international organizations. It is becoming a global threat and risks human lives.”
Naranjargal Khashkhuu
Honorary Professor of the University of Arts and Culture of Mongolia
Co-Founder and President of Globe International Center (GIC)
FJA Expert Council Member
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“Thanks to the Fetisov Journalism Award for giving us, experts, the opportunity to get acquainted with the works of journalists from all over the world. There are many truly professional works among them that evoke admiration and respect. It is clear that journalists have done a great job in order to convey to the public information that certain forces, state or criminal, are trying to hide.
For a reader, it was interesting to get acquainted with different human destinies, different characters. Some stories were told so talentedly that there was a feeling of presence in a distant country, village, community.
Thanks to all the candidates for continuing to engage in journalism despite the fact that it is one of the most dangerous professions in the world.”
Yana Israelyan
Journalist, Editor, Expert of Media Literacy
FJA Expert Council Member
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“As usual, there were many heartbreaking reports on civil rights violations from different parts of the world, which often require dedicated, responsible, and courageous journalism as it is proven by most of the cases.”
Sevda Alankuş
Dean of Yaşar University, Faculty of Communication in İzmir, Turkey
FJA Expert Council Member
“The stories reflected a growing intersection of environmental concerns with other issues, from civil rights to equity to questionable business practices and failed government policies. Or, perhaps worse, good government policies that simply aren’t fulfilled as promised. This intersectionality of environmental issues is likely to grow as the impacts climate change and pollution are felt inequitably across the globe.
I also noticed a strong effort by many entrants to get out into the field and report on the issues from the front lines. The stories truly come to life when the reporters take us into the lives of those most directly affected. Even better if they can then connect the reader to those stories and put the environmental issues they’re examining into a wider context.”
Stuart Laidlaw
Journalist, Editor, Former National Representative - Communications, Unifor Canada
FJA Expert Council Member
Fetisov Journalism Awards 2024
Shortlist
Outstanding Contribution to Peace
Birgitta Schülke, Arafatul Islam, Naomi Conrad
(Germany)
Torturers Deployed as UN Peacekeepers
Gunjan Sharma
(India)
One Year On: Ground reportage from conflict-hit northeastern state in India
Jatinder Kaur Tur
(India)
Screams from the Army Post. The Indian Army’s torture and murder of civilians in a restive Jammu
Lynzy Billing
(UK)
How America’s War Devastated Afghanistan’s Environment
Mahmoud Elsobky
(Egypt)
Syrian Airline, Haftar's Army profit from Human Smuggling
Mohammed Abushahma
(Palestine)
‘Only Those with Money Can Leave’: Gazans Pay Thousands to Escape Through Egypt
Nick Turse
(USA)
Series on Drone Strike Victims
Salma Abdel Aziz Bashir
(Sudan)
Murder on mobiles in Sudan - Families commit crimes against girls in Darfur for possessing a phone
Sarah A Topol
(USA)
The America That Americans Forget
Click here to learn more about the shortlisted stories
Outstanding Investigative Reporting
Alicia Florez, Lara Loaiza
(Colombia)
The Informants of Tibú: How the Colombian State Unleashed a Wave of Femicides
Anastasia Austin
(Colombia)
The Gangster Governor of Zulia: The Rise and Fall of Venezuela’s Omar Prieto
Angelina de los Santos
(Uruguay)
Series:
Uruguay’s Missing Women May Have Been Trafficked. The State Doesn't Care;
Predators Target Uruguay’s Children in Care… And the State Looks Away
Aritra Bhattacharya, Saurabh Kumar
(India)
Series on modern slavery in India
Beau Donelly, John Mooney, Peter Barth and Connor Plunkett
(Ireland/ USA)
Series on the secretive life of Irish drug cartel boss Christy Kinahan
Carey Baraka
(Kenya)
Inside The Kenyan Cult That Starved Itself to Death
Gloria Pallares
(Spain)
False claims of U.N. backing see Indigenous groups cede forest rights for sketchy finance
Jacob Goldberg, Leopold Salzenstein, Sarah Brown, Shaz Syed
(UK/ France/ Brazil/ India)
Revealed: Why the UN is not climate neutral
Juan Pablo Barrientos Hoyos, Miguel Ángel Estupiñán Medina
(Colombia)
The Secret Archive: The Catholic Priests Accused of Sexual Abuse in Colombia
Alejandro Gómez Dugand, Alex Rufino, Andres Cardona, Barbara Fraser, Beatriz Jucá, Bram Ebus, Diane Sampaio, Emily Costa, Ivan Brehaut, Jaap van 't Kruis, Jeanneth Valdivieso, Jorge Benezra, Josefina Salomon, Joseph Poliszuk, Juan Torres, Juliana Rezende, Juliana Rezende, Laura Kurtzberg, Leandro Barbosa, Luiz Fernando Toledo, Luiza Toledo, María Ramírez Cabello, Mariana Rios, Mary Carmen Vieira, Mathias Felipe, Nicoll Fonseca, Pamela Huerta, Rafael Ch Duran, Rodrigo Pedroso, Sam Cowie, Silvana Vincenti, Sinar Alvarado, Stefano Wrobleski, Tatiana Escárraga, Wagner Almeida
(Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, UK, US, Mexico, Netherlands, Argentina)
Amazon Underworld: Crime and Corruption in the Shadows of the World's Largest Rainforest
Kemi Busari
(Nigeria)
Baba Aisha, Nigeria’s fake ‘Doctor’ Cashing Out on Deadly Concoction That Cures Nothing
Nicolas Pelham
(UK)
The Baghdad Job: Who Was Behind History’s Biggest Bank Heist?
Sara Creta, Nour Khalil
(France/ Egypt)
Inside Egypt's Secret Scheme to Detain and Deport Thousands of Sudanese Refugees
Stanislau Ivashkevich
(Czech Republic)
Undercover Of Security Forces. Who Could Make Millions of Dollars on the Migration Crisis at the EU Border, Which Claimed Dozens of Lives?
Tom Cardoso, Robyn Doolittle, Mahima Singh, Ming Wong
(Canada)
Series: Secret Canada
Click here to learn more about the shortlisted stories
Contribution to Civil Rights
Gabriela Ramirez, Tina Xu
(Germany)
Widowed by Europe's Borders
Erica Hellerstein
(USA)
Silicon Savanna: The Workers Taking On Africa’s Digital Sweatshops
Katie McQue
(USA)
Series on use of social media platforms to exploit and traffic children
Will Coldwell
(UK)
A Teenaged Migrant Piloted a Dinghy That Sank in the Channel. Then He Was Charged with Manslaughter
Click here to learn more about the shortlisted stories
Excellence in Environmental Journalism
Daniel Grossman, Dado Galdieri, Patrick Vanier, Emily Petersen
(USA/ Brazil)
A River in Flux
Fabian Federl
(Brazil)
An Illegal Gold Mine for Switzerland
Gerald Flynn, Andrew Ball
(Cambodia)
Series: Forests in the Furnace
Laura Aragó, Xavier Aldekoa
(Spain)
RIP Mare Nostrum
Marta Vidal, Diana Takacsova
(Portugal/Belgium)
Series: Sacrifice Mountains
Peter Waldman, Momar Niang, Katarina Höije
(USA/ Senegal)
A Global Hunt for Water Profit Risks Draining Cities Dry
Tadeusz Michrowski
(Poland)
Catch-22 on the Baltic: The Twilight of Poland’s Coastal Fishermen
Wendy Selene Pérez Becerra, Alejandra Martinez
(USA)
Neglected and exposed: Toxic air lingers in a Texas Latino community, revealing failures in state’s air monitoring system
Click here to learn more about the shortlisted stories
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If any violation of the submission rules is identified at any stage of the competition the Steering Committee has the right to disqualify such entries immediately.