The Center for Investigative Journalism launches the Excellence in Investigative Journalism Awards, aiming to take investigative journalism to a new level by promoting excellence, engagement, courage, and a free spirit in the profession. The awards for excellence in investigative journalism will range from 1,000 to 1,500 euros. The competition will be held annually. This year, the awards ceremony will take place during the 2nd Regional Investigative Journalism Forum in Chisinau, which will be held in Chișinău, on June 3–4, 2025.

The competition will be held in three distinct categories:

Print media

TV and Radio

Cross-border investigations

An international jury composed of experienced journalists will select the best investigative journalism pieces in each competition category.

Journalists or teams of journalists who have produced and published investigative reports between 2024 – 2025 may submit applications. For cross-border investigations, at least one member of the authoring team must be a journalist from the Republic of Moldova.

Eligibility requirements:

Investigative reports may be submitted in Romanian, Russian, or English, created by journalists or groups of journalists from the Republic of Moldova, in partnership with colleagues from other countries, targeting corruption schemes and organized crime, embezzlement of public funds, conflicts of interest, influence peddling, abuse, propaganda and disinformation schemes, human rights violations, and published or broadcast on any type of media platform — newspaper, website, TV, radio, blog — during the period 2024 – 2025.

Each author or team of authors may submit a maximum of 2 investigations.

Prizes

The awards for excellence in investigative journalism will be:

1,000 euros for print media and TV

1,500 euros for cross-border journalism

Evaluation

Submissions will be evaluated by an international jury composed of journalism and investigative journalism experts, based on the following criteria:

Adherence to investigative journalism standards

Complexity of the investigated topic and journalistic effort invested

Documentation and substantiation of claims

Impact of the investigation on the addressed issue

Compliance with ethical standards

Courage and innovation

Award Ceremony

The jury will select the top three investigative journalism pieces in each competition category. The winners will be awarded at the Regional Investigative Journalism Forum, which will take place on June 3–4, 2025, in Chișinău.

Submission of applications

The submitted application files must include the following:

The investigation submitted for the competition:
a) the text in Word format and
b) an active link to the published investigation, a copy of the newspaper, or the video/audio recording in an accessible format

A short statement from the author(s) describing the impact of the investigation after publication

The updated CV of the author(s)

Applications for the Excellence in Investigative Journalism Competition must be submitted by May 15, 2025 (inclusive) by filling out the Application Form.

For questions or additional information, please email info@anticoruptie.md or contact Mihaela Cibotaru at mihaela.cibotaru@gmail.com.