Curtain up for the best journalists!
For the tenth time Gruner + Jahr and “Stern“ have honoured the best achievements in German language print- and online journalism with the Henri Nannen Prize. This year the award in the category Reportage went to Özlem Gezer ("Der Spiegel"), in the category Documentation to Malte Henk (GEO), in the category Investigation to Jacob Appelbaum, Nikolaus Blome, Hubert Gude, Ralf Neukirch, René Pfister, Laura Poitras, Marcel Rosenbach, Jörg Schindler, Gregor Peter Schmitz and Holger Stark ("Der Spiegel"), in the category Photo Reportage to Moises Saman ("SZ-Magazin") and in the category Essay to Wolfgang Uchatius ("Die Zeit"). Additionally the journalist and political scientist Alfred Grosser received the prize for his life achievement. The "Henri" for services for the Freedom of Press was awarded to the US-journalist Laura Poitras. The prizewinners were honoured on Friday evening in the scope of a festive ceremony in Hamburg.
Step right up! Step right up! Be it virtuoso masters of their craft, stunning word-magicians, truth freaks with heads for heights and other spectacular attractions of journalism - this year the "Henri" opened up the "media circus". Around 1,200 celebrity guests from the fields of culture, politics, business and media were welcomed by the master of ceremonies, actor Dominque Horwitz, into the "cabinet of curiosities of quality journalism" in the Kampnagel Theatre. In the ring of the Henri Nannen Prize 2014: mummers, jugglers and artists. But above all: Brilliant journalistic pieces of work.
"This was a very special year for journalism," said hostess and G+J CEO Julia Jäkel in her opening speech - and recalled the big stories of the past months: Stories about Angela Merkel’s cell phone, Edward Snowden's revelations, Cornelius Gurlitt’s paintings or former FC Bayern President Uli Hoeness' tax evasion. Stories that would probably never have come to light without the work of journalists. "Good journalism is fundamental for the functioning of our society. Without good journalism democracy is unthinkable," said Jäkel, "That's why we are raising the curtain for the best journalists, whom we want to make a huge hype about today."
One of the key players in the current media events had his say during the award ceremony: Via video link from Moscow, former U.S. intelligence official Edward Snowden praised the courage of winning journalist Laura Poitras. The documentary film director and producer was the first to pursue his story and was instrumental in the first publication of the NSA documents. "The fact that she brought the revelations to the world’s spotlight was incredible, but also very risky and dangerous for her," Snowden thanked Laura Poitras for her work: This was an important step towards a society beyond terror. For this commitment to the freedom of the press, the U.S. journalist received the Henri Nannen Prize 2014 on Friday – announcing at the ceremony that the documents still hold a lot of material for further stories.
A team from "Spiegel" also dedicated themselves to the surveillance by the NSA: For their contributions "Kanzler-Handy im US-Visier?"/"Der unheimliche Freund" (Chancellor mobile in U.S. sights?/"The sinister friend) Jacob Appelbaum, Nikolaus Blome, Hubert Gude, Ralf Neukirch, René Pfister, Laura Poitras, Marcel Rosenbach, Jörg Schindler, Gregor Peter Schmitz and Holger Stark were able to receive the trophy for the best investigative performance. Only due to their research, thus the jury, a few numerical codes in a NSA document were turned into a political bomb. No other revelations in recent times have so shaken the German-American relationship - "an investigative achievement of global political dimension."
The Egon Erwin Kisch Prize, the award for the best reportage, also saw the focus being on one of the main characters in the most recent media coverage: 1,280 images, including works by Picasso, Chagall, Matisse, Beckmann and Nolde, had been discovered at the Munich art collector Cornelius Gurlitt - hundreds of them suspected to be Nazi-looted art. Özlem Gezer from the "Spiegel" was the only journalist who was granted an insight into his life by the recently deceased and reclusive Gurlitt following the announcement of the art discovery. Gezer had managed a masterpiece, worded precisely and unbiasedly, with her psychogram "Gurlitt – Die Liebe seines Lebens" (Gurlitt - The love of his life), the jury stated.
Insights of a totally different kind were granted by Malte Henk in his GEO article "Nennt uns bloß nicht Helden". "Just don’t call us heroes." His portrait of the International Red Cross shows a highly respected institution between heroism and self-doubt. The contribution lives primarily from the fact that the author was able to come so close to the organisation as hardly a journalist beforehand. For this performance the jury awarded him the Henri Nannen Prize in the category Documentation.
The award for the best photo reportage was presented to Moises Saman. His piece of work published in the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" "Im Reich des Todes" (In the Empire of Death) about torture camps in the Sinai, succeeds in letting people keep their dignity in intensive close-ups, inspite of humiliation, despair and torture. The jury said: "We owe it to the courage of the photographer that we are able view images from a world which has been hidden from us until now. To publish those kind of images, should be an imperative for the media, to honor them is an honor for us."
For his compelling logic reasoning, the jury honoured Wolfgang Uchatius from the "Zeit" in the category Essay. In "Soll ich wählen oder shoppen?" (Should I vote or go shopping), he explains that today not the voters but the consumer has more political power. At the end of this essay, thus the jury, even sceptics will amazedly discover that they can find the author’s bold thesis quite feasible.
Traditionally the presentation of the Henri Nannen Prize for lifetime achievement concludes the prize ceremony. Julia Jäkel presented the award to French political scientist and journalist Alfred Grosser, who for years has committed himself to the French-German relationship in a large scale. In her laudatory speech, the German Minister of Defense, Ursula von der Leyen, acknowleged Grosser for his "total veraciousness". He had – as interpreter so to say of two nations, who were strangers to each other - promoted German-French normality: "That Germany and France now stand together so closely as friends, has been the work of many people. In the media certainly no one has played such a large part in this like Alfred Grosser", the Federal Minister underlined her words. In his speech the prizewinner emphasized the common ground of the two nations and appealed to the media "The German and French newspapers should start to talk about Europe instead of grumbling about it." A closing statement which fetched him standing ovations from the audience, including among others Liz Mohn, Thomas Rabe, Claudia Roth, the Vice-President of the German Parliament, and Hamburg Mayor Olaf Scholz as well as many celebrities from the world of media, culture, politics and business.
Further guests of the Henri Nannen Prize 2014, pictures from the prize ceremony as well as impressions from the after show party can be found in a picture gallery at www.henri-nannen-preis.de.
