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European Centre for Press and Media Freedom
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I got stuck between flights while the Investigative Journalism for Europe (IJ4EU) Impact Award ceremony was taking place last week, so they asked me to send a speech. I typed it sitting on the floor of Naples airport. Here it is (I managed to make it to Budapest the next day, where I received the recognition. BTW: The jury described Killing for the Photo as "one of the most uncomfortable investigations it reviewed this year because of the questions it raised about journalism’s own possible shortcomings — questions that remain highly relevant to how journalists are documenting the current wars in Ukraine and Gaza"): 
This investigation was never only about two photographers, a murder and a forgotten war. It is an investigation into a war crime and the involvement of professional reporters, because what the photographs show is a war crime, while what they do not show is the role of the photographers in it.
It is an investigation into our profession. It asks what happens when witnessing crosses the line into participation, and whether professional ambition or negligence can sometimes stop us from asking questions that should have been asked.
I’m not going to talk about the investigation because I would rather use this opportunity to say something that feels more important to me right now. But I do recommend that you read it. It’s not bad, I promise 🙂
Working on this investigation confirmed once again the conditions in which journalists work today, especially freelancers. We could not have started the investigation without grant support from JournalismFund. It was a relatively small grant. The investigation continued long after that money was gone, and it was finished thanks to an obsessive commitment to the story and a lot of unpaid work.
We often speak beautifully about journalism as a pillar of democracy. But democracy cannot run on journalists’ enthusiasm and unpaid labour.
At a time when independent journalism is under political attack across Europe, and when the economic foundations of our profession are already dangerously weak, the EU is discussing its next long-term budget. 

/Continued in the comments /
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