On October 5 in Europe House in Sarajevo, the winners of the Regional EU Awards for Best Investigative Journalism were announced. BIRN’s journalist Sasa Dragojlo was among the winners. The Regional award was created and awarded for the first time this year with the goal of fostering collaboration and supporting stories with regional impact produced by journalists from different countries from the Western Balkans region and Türkiye.

The jury consisted of Brent Sadler, a multi-award-winning journalist, including a BAFTA for Gulf War coverage and an Overseas Press Club of America Award for reporting from South Lebanon, with 18 years of working experience in CNN; Janine Gibson, an editor of FTWeekend, and editor-in-Chief of BuzzFeed UK and Deputy Editor of The Guardian, who oversaw Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Edward Snowden leaks; and Marko Milosavljević, a well-known academic at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

The EU Award for Investigative Journalism 2023 is part of the project “Strengthening Quality Journalism in Western Balkans and Türkiye II”. This aims to recognise and promote outstanding achievements in investigative journalism as well as improve the visibility of quality journalism in the Western Balkans and Türkiye.