Lorenzo Natali Prize 2024 - 32nd edition
For over three decades, the Lorenzo Natali Prize has celebrated excellence in journalism as the EU's flagship journalism award, commemorating the former Vice-President of the European Commission, Lorenzo Natali, who strongly promoted and furthered European development policies.
Since its establishment in 1992, the Prize has brought stories about important worldwide issues into focus. It has recognised journalists who bring to light stories on the human impact of climate, digital infrastructure, gender equality, human development, jobs, peace, governance and human rights, among other issues, and this year is no different.
Marking the 32nd year of the award, applications for the 2024 Lorenzo Natali Prize will open on 29 May 2024. We encourage all journalists to apply by submitting an eligible story until 30 June 2024 23:59 CEST.
Entering this competition is the perfect opportunity for you to share your story with the world. Let’s go beyond the headlines!
The Prize at a Glance
Applications are open to entries in any language but should be accompanied by a translation into one of the competition languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese or German.
Entries can take various forms, including written articles, audio-visual content, or multimedia presentations. Detailed information on the terms and conditions can be found in the Prize Rules.
The Lorenzo Natali Prize rewards excellent reporting on the topics of:
Prize categories
Reporting by journalists aged between 18 and 25 at the time of submission and published by a media outlet based in any of the eligible countries. The Best Emerging Journalist Prize also offers a unique training opportunity to equip the winner with the skills required for high-quality journalism.
Reporting published by a media outlet based in one of the eligible countries whose objective is to uncover serious issues such as crimes, injustice, corruption, or corporate wrongdoing, and to expose these to the public.
Reporting published by a media outlet based in one of the eligible countries focusing on entertaining, educating, engaging or informing the audience. This can take an in-depth look at a current event, situation, person or group, and can cover innovations and solutions to current challenges.
Photojournalism work published by a media outlet based in one of the eligible countries in recognition of the impact of visual storytelling in conveying the complex realities of our world. Entries under this category must be single photographs.
Check the list of the eligible coutries.
The winner of each category will receive EUR 10,000 as a prize, and the winner of the Best Emerging Journalist category will also be offered an exciting work experience placement or traineeship with a media partner.
The winners will be announced at the Lorenzo Natali Prize Award Ceremony in Brussels later in 2024.
The Jury
A Grand Jury of internationally renowned journalists and representatives from key non-governmental organisations around the world will choose the winners in each category.
The Jury will be announced soon, so please watch this space to discover the 2024 Grand Jury.
The #NataliPrize Community
The #NataliPrize Community brings together like-minded individuals and entities who share a passion for the issues covered by the Lorenzo Natali Prize. Gathering past winners, Grand Jury Members, strategic regional partners and ambassadors, the Community grows with each edition of the Prize.
Past Winners
The Lorenzo Natali Prize has recognised over a hundred journalists since it was launched in 1992.
The 2023 winners were selected from over 700 applications from across the world.
Browse the map to view where the past winners' work was published.
Who was Lorenzo Natali?
Lorenzo Natali was a Commissioner for Development and a staunch defender of freedom of expression, democracy, human rights and development. He served three terms as one of Italy’s European Commissioners.
Natali played an important role in the EU accession process of Greece, Spain and Portugal. He also helped enact key measures to combat pollution and improve living conditions across Europe. In his final four-year term as Commissioner, from 1985 until 1989, he was handed responsibility for cooperation and development policy in the Commission under President Jacques Delors. It was in this capacity that he set up a broad network of relations with the governments and leaders of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.
The Prize is open to journalists in the following four categories:
- Best Emerging Journalist Award: reporting by journalists aged between 18 and 25 at the time of submission of their entry for the Prize and published by a media outlet based in any of the eligible countries.
- Investigative Journalism Award: reporting published by a media outlet based in one of the eligible countries whose objective is to uncover serious issues such as crimes, injustice, corruption or corporate wrongdoing and to expose these to the public.
- Feature Journalism Award: reporting published by a media outlet based in one of the eligible countries focusing on entertaining, educating, engaging or informing the audience. Can take an in-depth look at a current event or situation, person or group. Can cover innovations and solutions to current challenges.
- Special Award: this award is intended to give visibility to other types of media, focusing on one type per year. The 2024 edition will recognise photojournalism work published by a media outlet based in one of the eligible countries.
Entries must be submitted online through the application form available on the Prize website.
Yes, applicants have to register via the EU-Login service to submit their application. To sign up for the EU-Login service, if you don’t have an account yet, follow the steps below:
- Click on the registration link and provide the information requested. Check the box acknowledging that you have read and understood the EU-Login privacy statement and confirm.
- You will then receive an email with a link. Click on this link to create a password for your EU-Login account.
- Once your password is created, your EU-Login account will be active.
- Once the account is active you can proceed with submitting your application for the Prize via the application form.
Yes, journalists can submit one entry in one category only.
The deadline to submit an entry for the Prize is 30 June 2024, at 23:59 CEST.
The entry of maximum 2,300 words can be an extract from a longer article. Candidates must submit both the extract and a link to the full article. The evaluation will be based on the extract.
The entry of maximum 30 minutes can be an extract from a longer item. Candidates must provide the extract as well as a link to the full item. The evaluation will be based on the extract.
No, as this year’s Special Award focuses on photojournalism, entries under this category must consist of a single photograph and a long description. Multiple exposures, polyptychs (diptychs, triptychs, and so forth) and stitched panoramas, either produced in-camera or with image editing software are not eligible for the Special Award.
Additionally, the content of the image may not be digitally altered significantly beyond standard optimisation as in cropping, reasonable adjustments to exposure, colour contrast, etc.
Yes, entries can be submitted in English, Spanish, German, French or Portuguese. If the entry is not in one of those languages, it is mandatory to submit a translation in one of those languages along with the link to the original reporting. Only this translation will be evaluated.
No, entries must have been published or broadcast between 30 May 2023, and 29 May 2024, to be eligible for the Prize.
Yes, entries that have been co-authored are eligible for the Prize, if all co-authors be within the same category and meet the eligibility criteria. If a co-authored entry wins, the financial prize will be divided between the authors.
Yes, applicants will receive a confirmation e-mail to the address used for the EU-login account creation.
Any article submitted must be freely available online. If the media outlet has a paywall, the submitted article must be outside the paywall.
Being publicly accessible is a requirement of the prize. If an online item entered for the prize is behind a paywall, the paywall has to be removed for the article to be eligible. Items that have only appeared in print, can be submitted in PDF format via a generally accessible link, for example, uploaded to a service like Dropbox or Google Drive, with the permission of the publisher.