European Parliament awards Prize for Journalism

For the first time, the European Parliament awarded its Prize for Journalism to journalists who contributed significantly to a better understanding of major European issues. At the award ceremony in Brussels, Ireland was represented by Angela Steen from Navan, the winner of the Irish competition.

 

HD

European Parliament Prize for Journalism

For the first time, European Parliament awarded its Prize for Journalism during a ceremony on 17 October in the European Parliament in Brussels. During the award ceremony, Hans-Gert Pöttering, President of the European Parliament, congratulated more than 70 national winners from all over Europe, including Irish winner Angela Steen. He handed the European Prize for Journalism out to four journalists, honouring their contributions in the categories written press, TV, online and radio. The Prize is awarded to journalists who made an "outstanding contribution to clarifying major issues at European level or have promoted a better understanding of the institutions or policy of the European Union".

The Irish Winner - Angela Steen

The Irish competition for the European Parliament Prize for Journalism was won by Angela Steen, a young Irish journalist from Navan, Co.Meath. Angela Steen went to the St Michael's Loreto Secondary School in Navan, before she studied Journalism and Media Communication at Griffith College in Dublin, followed by studying European Studies at Trinity College and the Sciences-Po in Paris. Her article "Åland - å land neither Finnish nor Swedish" is about a tiny archipelago of Finland, which is home to 26,000 Swedish speaking islanders. Angela Steen puts this little island in the spot of her article, as it has the power, under the Finish constitution, to reject the Lisbon treaty in Finland. And indeed for different reasons the Ålandish parliamentary assembly threatened to stop the ratification process. The Irish jury found Angela Steen's article to be the outstanding contribution of the competition in Ireland, as it puts a rarely known story of European Integration into the spotlight. Being the Irish national winner, Angela Steen represented Ireland at the award ceremony in Brussels.

MEPs congratulate Irish winners

Angela Steen received also congratulations by Members of the European Parliament from her constituency in Ireland. Fine Gael MEP, Avril Doyle, congratulated her, saying "Angela is from my own constituency of Ireland East, and like many journalists across the EU the way she provides information on EU issues helps to promote a better understanding of how EU institutions work." Fianna Fáil MEP, Liam Aylward, joined the congratulators: "I wish to congratulate Angela Steen on her reward for journalism (...) The more light is shed on the European Parliament by journalists the more informed people are about the work that is being done." Fine Gael MEP, Mairead McGuinness, recognized Angela Steen's contribution as well, highlighting that "journalism is a very noble profession and good journalism is a very important part of healthy democracy (...) Angela deserves to feel proud of her achievement."


For further information, please contact Lars Stephan, Press Officer on 086 8559423 or lars.stephan@europarl.europa.eu.