Investigative journalism award shortlist ten investigations, including about Azerbaijan and Belarus
Ten investigations have been shortlisted for the 2025 Investigative Journalism for Europe (IJ4EU) Impact Award, Europe’s annual prize celebrating cross-border collaboration in European watchdog journalism.
This year, projects were submitted by 36 teams representing a total of 58 countries, including all 27 EU member states and countries well beyond European borders.
The investigations concerning Azerbaijan, Belarus and Russian indoctrination on Ukrainian children hit the list of ten nominees.
The Baku Connection
Fifteen outlets, coordinated by Forbidden Stories, took up the work of Azerbaijani journalists Ulvi Hasanli and Sevinc Vaqifqizi of Abzas Media, who were imprisoned alongside four of their colleagues by Azerbaijani authorities.
“The investigation they continued exposed far more than local corruption: from the murky management of Azerbaijan’s prison system and environmental abuses at the Gedabek gold mine, to EU funds flowing into Azerbaijan’s prison system known for human rights violations,” says the project description on the IJ4EU website. “It also reveals how election monitoring was manipulated, and uncovers a financial network involving millions in embezzled funds moving through Luxembourg, France, and Azerbaijan just as Azerbaijan prepared to host COP29.”
Passportgate
This series of investigations, led by the Belarusian Investigative Centre (BIC) and Lithuanian portal 15min.lt, shows how Viktor Chevtsov, an oligarch known as “Lukashenko’s moneybag”, profits from a company called Golograficheskaya Industria. The entity holds a state-granted monopoly on producing security holograms and crystallograms on a wide range of consumer products, securing a steady flow of public money into private hands.
According to the project description, the reporters also uncovered ties between Chevtsov and Lithuania’s longtime passport producer, UAB Garsų pasaulis. Whether by chance or not, it was this company that Belarusian opposition leaders chose to create the “New Belarus” passport, a document designed to provide secure and legitimate identification for Belarusians living in exile.
Kremlin Leaks
A consortium of 17 journalists from seven countries joined forces to verify and analyse a cache of documents leaked from Putin’s presidential administration. Published in lead-up to the Russian presidential election, Kremlin Leaks offers a unique insight into how the Kremlin stages a billion dollar performance of civic engagement, creating fake networks of opinion leaders, running a propaganda system that tracks Russian citizens from birth to death, and spies on each step they take on the internet using sophisticated IT systems.
The investigation also uncovers how Russia’s propaganda machine extends to unexpected institutions, including even the Russian Red Cross (RRC). Documents show its involvement in the “re-education” of children deported from occupied Ukraine and routine engagement in Russia’s patriotic military camps, where young children are taught to handle rifles and train in close-combat.
The three winning teams will be announced on 26 September 2025 at the closing ceremony of UNCOVERED, IJ4EU’s annual conference. This year’s edition will be hosted in Athens, Greece, by iMEdD International Journalism Forum. Each winning team will receive €5,000.
The Investigative Journalism for Europe (IJ4EU) fund supports cross-border watchdog journalism in and around the European Union. The IJ4EU programme is supported by the European Union’s Creative Europe Programme.
Find out more
MOST READ
[popular_posts columns_xl=”4″ columns_l=”4″ columns_m=”3″]
