Our collective poem campaign ‘A line for journalism’

We launched the campaign ‘A line for journalism’, an initiative designed to give the possibility to journalists, activists and freedom of speech supporters everywhere in the world to express themselves freely, creating together a collective poem on journalism.

Good journalism is like poetry. It inspires us, moves us, changes us, and ultimately, its words can set us free. This is why we launched ‘A line for Journalism’, a collective poem initiative on journalism and journalists. The title of the poem will be Running from Silence, because too many media professionals, everywhere in the world, are oppressed by censorship, or forced to flee their country to continue doing their job as they feel it should be done.

Whoever is interested in participating in the campaign, adding one line to the poem or sharing its content, can do that via this link: https://www.europeanpressprize.com/a-line-for-journalism/

The power of collective poetry

Journalism is a collective endeavour. It lives in the work of the professionals who, every day, work to tell stories that must be told; in the struggle of those who strive to give journalists adequate protection; and in the eyes and opinions of its many audiences.

Collective (or collaborative) poetry can represent well what journalism needs to be to stay relevant. Its history goes back many centuries, to when poets collaborated with their contemporaries to refine and enhance their poetic skills. Renaissance poetry in France is marked by ‘virtuoso circles’ wherein many professional writers would collaborate with their contemporaries and engage with their predecessors. In modern times, this art was perfected by the Surrealists, which started creating poems composed of entire lines written by several different poets.

Running from the silence of censorship

The title of this collective poem will be Running from Silence, because too many media professionals, everywhere in the world, are oppressed by censorship, or forced to flee their country to continue doing their job as they feel it should be done.

According to the latest UNESCO report, the numbers on censorship and attacks on journalism are constantly growing. From 2016 to the end of 2021, UNESCO recorded the killings of 455 journalists, who either died for their work or while on the job. At the same time, the imprisonment of journalists has reached record highs. New legal measures undermine, instead of bolster, press freedom. Since 2016, dozens of countries have adopted or amended laws and regulations which threaten freedom of expression and press freedom online.

Emanuele Del Rosso, Head of Communications and PR at the Prize: “Our goal is to free the word of journalists. We want to provide them with an outlet to freely express themselves. Whether they operate from war areas, under a regime, or they are in exile, they can submit anonymously and say what they really think and feel. Their word can be freed, through our collective poem.”

Participate in the initiative

This is a collective poem, for a collaborative project. The European Press Prize welcomes organisations that operate in the fields of press freedom, journalism, education, or public figures that would like to help, or contribute with a line and/or an endorsement of the project.

There is no required fee to participate, and the organisers are open to considering all the different uses that can be made of this poem, and having it shown (in its entirety or some of its parts) in different places at different times.

Contact the Head of Communications and PR Emanuele Del Rosso at [email protected] if you are interested in participating in this campaign.

The European Press Prize Award Ceremony 2023: In Tbilisi with ZEG

The European Press Prize is delighted to announce that its annual Award Ceremony will, for the year 2023, be held on June 9 in the capital of Georgia, Tbilisi, in collaboration with ZEG Tbilisi Storytelling Festival.

Staying true to our mission of supporting excellence in journalism and upholding its values around Europe, we celebrate our Award Ceremony in a different European city every year. This way, journalists from all over the continent – and beyond – have the opportunity to meet in a different cultural and socio-economic context, and the European Press Prize Community can grow, and become ever-stronger.

After Berlin in 2021 – a Ceremony held in September because of the pandemic – and Madrid in 2022, we are delighted to move East, to Georgia, and be guests of its capital Tbilisi.

The Award Ceremony 2023 will be held on June 9, where we will be partnering up with ZEG Tbilisi Storytelling Festival, an international event, organised by Coda Story and Impact Hub Tbilisi, dedicated to the power of stories in all their different forms. Our Community of Laureates, Members, Board members, our Panel of Judges and our Preparatory Committee members are among the guests that will attend our Award Ceremony. It will be a day made of discussions on the state of journalism, which will culminate with the granting of our annual Awards.

As Thomas van Neerbos, Director of the European Press Prize, explained: “It is a wonderful opportunity for us to bring the European Press Prize Award Ceremony to the beautiful city of Tbilisi, as part of ZEG Festival. Georgia is one of Europe’s crossroads of cultures and stories, in a moment in which many of these crossroads are under pressure for several reasons. Excellent journalism, as we’ve seen over the years at the Press Prize, is often created under pressure and because of some kind of pressure, therefore Tbilisi is where we need and want to be!”

“Zeg is the region’s first storytelling festival that was created in 2019 by Coda Story and Impact Hub Tbilisi. We are thrilled to be teaming up with the European Press Prize to host journalists who are telling some of Europe’s most important stories in Tbilisi,” said Natalia Antelava, co-founder of Coda and organizer of ZEG.

The new Migration Award

In Tbilisi, we will, hopefully, also inaugurate a sixth Award, the first thematic Award in European Press Prize history: the Migration Journalism Award. A call for funding to support this category is open, and can be found at this link.

If you are interested in discussing partnership possibilities, please reach out to our Contracts & Partner Lead Jennifer Athanasiou-Prins at jennifer[at]europeanpressprize.com.