Fifteen winners, chosen from over 1,000 applicants worldwide, were awarded by an independent jury composed of eight members from the profession at a ceremony in Stockholm on Thursday. According to the press statement from the Delegation of the European Commission to Ghana, the occasion coincided with the European Development Days.

The prize consists of 12 regional awards, a special Radio award, TV Special Award and the Grand Natalie Prize. Anas’ undercover investigations which revealed the Chinese Mafia sex scandal had him worked as a hired waiter in a hotel. During his surveillance he observed closely the violent and inhumane practices of Chinese pimps.

The European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Karel De Gucht, said: “Freedom of expression is one of our most fundamental rights. By committing to be witnesses of our time, journalists have chosen what many consider the best job in the world. By showing the living conditions and contemporary accounts of events that shake the world, denouncing the injustices and scandals and revealing all these, is to participate in the promotion of democracy, development and freedom.

“The Natali Prize is an opportunity to pay tribute to those men and women who sometimes risked their lives trying to improve the world we live in, putting us in front the realities of today.

“I congratulate the winner of the Second Prize for Africa 2009, Anas Aremeyaw, a young journalist investigating the many attacks on the rights of man, for his tenacity and perseverance to denounce injustice.”

The first prize for Africa 2009, Natali Prize went to Richard Mgamba, of The Guardian on Sunday, Tanzania, for his article “The battle for souls”. The third price went to Moussa Zongo, of Event, Burkina Faso, for his article “Bread underground at the price of rashness”. The Natali Grand Prize went to Sichuan Earthquake, of Now TV, China, for his article “One year on from Lee Yee Chong”.

Background

Lorenzo Natali Prize is a global prize created in 1992, addressed to all media. The prize is part of the development policy of the European Commission which considers the protection of fundamental freedoms, freedom of expression, democracy, human rights as essential.

To organize the Lorenzo Natali Prize, the European Commission partnered with the World Press Associations among which are the most recognized, such as Reporters Without Borders (winner of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2005) and The World Association of Newspapers (which represents over 18,000 publications on five continents).

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