Janusz Schwertner

Janusz Schwertner has won the 2021 European Press Prize Distinguished Reporting Award with ‘Love in the time of plague.’

Janusz Schwertner (born February 8, 1992) – is a journalist of the Polish internet portal Onet. He is a laureate of many Polish journalistic awards, including the Grand Press awards for investigative journalism and reportage.

He started his journalistic work at the age of 14 as a journalist for a student newspaper. He has also written articles for magazines like Playboy and Esquire.

He deals with social and political issues. He has written several books. In the book “Smolensk. 96 memories”, together with other Polish journalists, he created 96 reports about all the victims of the plane crash in which the Polish president died.

In “Szramy”, together with Witold Bereś, he described the catastrophic situation of Polish child psychiatry, as well as the problem of suicides among children and widespread intolerance.

As a journalist, he also describes the Polish criminal world. Together with Mateusz Baczyński, he wrote books about Polish anti-terrorists and policemen working undercover.

Janusz teaches journalism at the SWPS University in Warsaw.

In his private life, Janusz is a big football fan and admirer of two artists who had a great influence on his life: punkrock musician Robert Brylewski and film director Krzysztof Kieślowski.

Maldita.es

Maldita.es has won the 2021 European Press Prize Innovation Award with ‘Maldita.es’ WhatsApp Chatbot to thrive a fact-checking operation on disinformation.’

Maldita.es is a non-profit foundation that fights disinformation and promotes transparency through fact-checking and data journalism. Its mission is to provide citizens with tools, technology and information that allows them to make informed decisions based on verified information. For that purpose, Maldita.es develops technology and innovative formats that address the public’s need together with media literacy programs that help create an aware community that can defend itself from disinformation and lies in all areas. Their watchword is ‘journalism to not be fooled,’ with 30 journalists, engineers and educators working in the frontline of disinformation. Maldita.es is a member of the International Fact-Checking Network and the only Spanish organisation appointed by the European Commission to the High Level Group on Fake News and Disinformation.