Bellingcat Receives Machiavelli Award 2019
The Machiavelli Award 2019 has been granted to the investigative journalism collective Bellingcat. That has been announced today by the board of the Machiavelli Foundation. The Machiavelli Award is annually granted for a remarkable achievement in the field of public communication.
Bellingcat receives the award because of “its innovative ways of investigative journalism leading to repeated and pioneering scoops”, according to the jury report. “Bellingcat has given a new impulse to thorough investigative journalism in an era where fake news seems to appear more and more. This innovation is a great example for traditional media and aspiring journalists. While traditional media are often hesitant to share their knowledge and their approach, Bellingcat encourages just that. Bellingcat deserves praise for consciously spreading their knowledge”.
“Bellingcat’s revelations about MH17 have made a worldwide impact and in The Netherlands in particular”, so states the jury report.
The board of the Machiavelli Foundation has found Eliot Higgins, founder of Bellingcat, willing to receive the Machiavelli Award 2019.
The award will be granted on Wednesday 12 February by Marja Wagenaar, chairperson of the Machiavelli Foundation in Press Centre Nieuwspoort (The Hague). It is the 31st time that the award is granted. The meeting starts at 17h. Entry from 16.30h.
Previous prize winners included ‘the endangered mayor’, SheDecides, Hugo Borst & Carin Gaemers, the Dutch Safety Board, RTL Netherlands, Mayor Eberhard van der Laan, Bauke Vaatstra, H.K.H. Princess Máxima, national coach Bert van Marwijk and investigative journalist Jeroen Smit.
Roxane van Iperen, bestselling author of ‘The Sisters of Auschwitz’ about two Jewish sisters in the Dutch resistance movement in WWII, will give the Machiavelli Lecture, titled “Upset and insecurity: a plea for an uncompromising life”, prior to the award ceremony.
If you would like to attend the meeting, please register here.
