Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for Journalism 2024, the winners.

Lost in Europe wins the Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for Journalism 2024 thanks to its inquiry into the disappearance of more than 50,000 unaccompanied foreign minors. The investigation was conducted by media based in Germany, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland and United Kingdom. It has revealed that at least 51.433 unaccompanied foreign minors went missing after arriving in Europe between 2021 and 2023.
Wednesday’s award ceremony in Strasbourg, held in the European Parliament press room named after Daphne Caruana Galizia, was attended by Roberta Metsola, president of the European Parliament, and Pina Picierno, vice-president in charge of the prize, and representatives of the independent jury that decided on the winner.

A WINNING STORY
Lost in Europe has brought to light a staggering reality: since 2021, an average of nearly 47 minors have gone missing every day after arriving in Europe. Data collected by Lost in Europe on 31 European countries, including Austria, Germany and Italy, show that tens of thousands of children are missing from the roll call. The inquiry, which lasted several months, also shows that the actual number of missing children may be even higher: major gaps were found due to poor data availability and inconsistent documentation found in some countries. The investigation has started following a research carried out by Lost in Europe in 2021, according to which more than 18.000 foreign children went missing in Europe between 2018 and 2020.

THE PRIZE
The Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize was established by a decision of the Bureau of the European Parliament in December 2019 to pay tribute to Daphne Caruana Galizia, a Maltese investigative journalist and blogger committed to fighting corruption who was murdered in a car bomb attack in 2017. The prize is awarded annually (on the anniversary of the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia) to recognize the outstanding merits of journalism that promotes or defends the fundamental principles and values of the European Union, such as human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and human rights. Professional journalists or groups of professional journalists of any nationality may submit in-depth articles published or broadcasted by media based in one of the 27 member states of the European Union. The goal is to promote and highlight the importance of professional journalism in safeguarding freedom, equality and opportunity. The independent jury is composed of representatives of the press and civil society from the 27 EU member states and representatives of leading European journalism associations. The prize and its amount of EUR 20,000 are a witness to the European Parliament’s support for investigative journalism and press freedom.