At Follow the Money, we don't seek the spotlight. We let our work speak for itself - the scoops and investigations that expose corruption and wrongdoing.

Yet that doesn't mean that we're not proud when our work is recognised. Like this week. On Tuesday, we, along with an international team of investigative journalists, received the Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for Journalism. The European Parliament established this prize to honour the Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was murdered in 2017, and to keep her mission – holding those in power to account – alive.

Shadow Fleet Secrets

The independent jury, consisting of 28 journalists (from all EU member states, plus one from Brussels), received more than 300 submissions this year. Our investigation, the Shadow Fleet Secrets, was chosen as the winner. We revealed that the Russian shadow fleet – old, uninsured oil tankers used by Russia to circumvent sanctions – consists of more than a third of old tankers sold by Western companies. These companies have raked in more than 6 billion dollars from these sales.

The award comes with prize money of 20,000 euros, but above all, it is a huge honour. Especially because this prize explicitly recognises journalism’s vital contribution to defending the European Union’s core values, such as freedom and democracy. And therefore it emphasises the importance of free press. In times like these, that recognition is needed more than ever 

Worldwide threats

The day of the awards ceremony highlighted the global threat to independent journalism. In the afternoon, two Palestinian journalists spoke about their work and the situation in Gaza. A researcher from Reporters Without Borders said that 210 Palestinian journalists have already been killed. Simply because they were doing their job and sought to uncover the truth.

The threat also exists in Europe. Two Italian journalists spoke about how intimidation affects their work. One was Roberto Saviano, the author of the famous book "Gomorrah" about the Italian mafia. He has had to go into hiding several times and is still being threatened. The other was Sigfrido Ranucci, an investigative journalist for the Italian public broadcaster Rai. He had just survived an attack days earlier, when his car was blown up in front of his house.

Meanwhile in Ukraine and Russia, journalists are trying to report on what is happening in their countries, investigate war crimes, and uncover which Western nations or companies may be involved.

Without such investigative journalists, the truth remains hidden and power goes unchallenged.  

We need them 

Democracy needs these journalists. The European Parliament needs them – even if they may sometimes seem like a nuisance. This is our job: asking the inconvenient questions. 

At Follow the Money, we need them too.. We are fortunate to live and work in a relatively safe country. Only by collaborating with journalists from other countries are we able to produce investigations like the one that was honoured this week.

Therefore, the team behind Shadow Fleet Secrets  has decided to donate the prize money to two investigative media organisations that are working under extreme circumstances :Slidstvo.info from Ukraine and the Russian outlet iStories. 

This is not just an act of kindness or altruism. We know that independent investigative journalism is expensive, even for us. But we strongly believe that such media outlets are urgently needed in times like these. 

Help us

These investigative outlets are reporting on war and facing immense hostility by governments, oligarchs and multinationals. They counter state propaganda with verified facts, keeping truth alive amid manipulation. By tracing financial flows, hidden influence, and corruption, they expose risks that affect all European democracies. 

You can help us keep independent journalism alive. For every new annual membership on ftm.eu, we donate the first three months of your money to Slidstvo.info and iStories.

We will continue to engage in cross-border collaborations and investigations in the future – to hold those in power to account.

(This is an edited version of the speech given at the award ceremony.)