Nominated for her prolific journalistic activity in the local media (Constanța), which includes among others investigation series on corruption, articles regarding social problems and cultural heritage, and also for her commitment to recruiting and training young journalists.

“We are glad that the Ion Rațiu Journalism Award is granted to a local journalist this year. Local media needs support and appreciation and this talented and devoted journalist confirms its strength. Andreea Pavel has been also passing over her passion for journalism to the young generation, a mission to which we are also committed through our work at the Rațiu Forum – for instance, through our mentorship programme for young journalists or our journalism workshops.”

– Nicolae Ratiu, Chairman of the Ratiu Family Charitable Foundation.

Nominated for his series of investigative articles regarding the funding mechanisms of Romanian media outlets fuelled by the budget of the largest parties in Romania.

According to the members of the Nomination Committee, the Awardee was tireless in gathering disaggregated information from the main Romanian parties, revealing a corrupt mechanism of spending public money and of shaping the public agenda.

“We believe very strongly that investigative journalism must be supported and encouraged in Romania. The 2022 Awardee proves that journalists are essential for shedding a light on corruption and its hidden mechanisms that influence how public resources are being used and on how the public agenda is being influenced. Other seven extremely talented journalists have received the Award so far and we are pleased that most of them are actively involved in our recurrent journalism projects, including workshops and a mentorship programme for young journalists.”

– Nicolae Ratiu, Chairman of the Ratiu Family Charitable Foundation.

Nominated for

In November 2020 Victor Ilie published the investigation that discovered and brought to the public’s attention the “King of the pandemic”, the main person responsible for purchasing vital medical equipment for the Romanian state and its citizens, a master of a “kingdom” dominated by corruption, defiance and incompetence. According to the members of the Jury Committee that evaluated this year’s proposals, the article written by Victor Ilie is an example of quality journalism produced by an independent press project, an investigation carried out at a time when the access to information was often limited for journalists.

“I congratulate Victor Ilie for his impeccably researched investigation, in which he revealed a (new) corrupt official feeding on public resources, who had gained huge decision-making powers at a time that was critical for everyone, and who is presently prosecuted by anti-corruption prosecutors for bribery and abuse of office. We continue to support investigative journalism in Romania and what gives us hope is the quality of the investigation articles that we read when evaluating nominations. They are all conducted thoroughly and with professionalism by honest and dedicated journalists – much needed by our society, especially in times of crisis”.

– Nicolae Ratiu, Chairman of the Ratiu Family Charitable Foundation.

Nominated for

Diana Oncioiu was nominated for Dreptate strâmbă: 3 din 4 cazuri de acte sexuale cu victime copii sunt judecate în instanțele românești ca fapte consimțite, an investigation regarding the trialing of sexual abuses against minors by Romanian courts.
She sheds a light on a painful reality in Romanian courts: the manner in which sexual abuses against minor victims are trialed and the tendency of judges to assume that sexual relations took place also with the acceptance of the child-victim. This is possible in a system that assigns blame to the victim, despite the condemnation of the Romanian State by the European Court for Human Rights, which concluded that the Romanian criminal-law system had failed to legally protect children against degrading treatment and to pursue the best interests of minors in the administration of justice. The 2020 Awardee writes for the alternative publication Dela0 and is also a member of the Să Fie Lumină collaborative project, initiated by Dela0.ro and the Center for Media Investigations. She also has a background in broadcasting, having worked for five years for Realitatea TV and Digi24. Diana Oncioiu covers mainly social topics – domestic violence, education, social assistance, extreme poverty.

“The brave, highly detailed and well-researched investigation into the Romanian Courts’ handling of sexual abuse cases amongst minors impressed the jury and convinced us that Diana Oncioiu well deserves the Award for this and indeed for other subjects she has investigated. We believe very strongly that investigative journalism must be supported and encouraged by those in a position to fill the gap left by mass media. The quality also has necessarily to be excellent to be picked up more widely and she has certainly achieved this. To this end, we have and continue to organize workshops for Romanian journalists, involving both Romanian and international experts.”

– Nicolae Ratiu, Chairman of the Ratiu Family Charitable Foundation.

Nominated for

Dumnezeul Achizițiilor. Alex Nedea, together with David Muntean, have researched with honesty the information available in the field of public acquisitions and have found a gold nugget: a node of corruption relations which ties high ranking politicians with an apparently unimportant hierarch. The information generated by the investigation became more powerful, the more the protagonist of this video investigation proved various qualities which gave him a Schadenfreude aura. Such combination turned this investigation into a star of these past months.” Alex Nedea, Reporter Recorder

Alex Nedea started his career in 2004 within the education department of Adevărul daily newspaper and Jurnalul Național feature department. In March 2008 he joined Realitatea TV as an investigative reporter and has since worked within the investigative departments of Jurnalul Național, Adevărul, as well as Antena 3’s “În premieră” where he handled current affairs documentaries.

He is the recipient of 2011 Investigative Journalism Award, offered by the Romanian Press Club and 2013 “European Reporter” Grand Prize, an European Commission Award, as well as of the 2014 Silver World Medal at the New York Festivals TV & Film Awards. More recently he is the 2016 & 2017 first prize awardee of Superscrieri Romania and the 2018 Bronze World Medal recipient of New York Festivals TV & Film Awards.

In January 2019 he joined Recorder where, together with David Muntean (operator), he investigated the corruption that surrounds the biggest modernisation program of rural Romania in the previous 30 years.

Nominated for “his ability to coordinate and ensure work efficiency of the journalistic teams on both sides of the ocean. The RISE Project investigative series into the underground businesses of Romanians suspected of breaking the law both in Romania and Brazil is a model investigation. The fact that those investigated are influential Romanian politicians adds courage to the proven professional probity of the journalists – a scarce trait among journalists nowadays.” Paul Radu, Director and Co-founder RISE PROJECT

Paul Radu (@IDashboard) is the director and co-founder of RISE Project a platform for investigative reporters and hackers in Romania.

He is a co-founder and the executive director of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and a co-creator of the Investigative Dashboard concept, of Visual investigative Scenarios visualization software.

He has held a number of fellowships, including the Alfred Friendly Press Fellowship in 2001, the Milena Jesenska Press Fellowship in 2002, the Rosalyn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism in 2007, the 2008 Knight International Journalism fellowship with the International Center for Journalists and the 2009-2010 Stanford Knight Journalism Fellowship.

He is the recipient of numerous awards including in 2004, the Knight International Journalism Award and the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award, in 2007, the Global Shining Light Award, the Tom Renner Investigative Reporters and Editors Award, the 2011 the Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting and a 2015 European Press Prize. Paul was a member of the ICIJ led investigative team that won the Pulitzer prize in 2017 for Panama Papers.

He is a board member with the Global Investigative Journalism Network, ICFJ, Bellingcat and other organizations.

Paul’s recent work includes the Panama and the Paradise Papers, the Russian and the Azerbaijani Laundromat as well as a number of exposés focused on powerful Romanian politicians and oligarchs.

Nominated for “his investigative piece All the General’s Men that looked into the fortune of former Vice Prime Minister Gabriel Oprea and  his investigative series Death Map – a detailed radiography of the disaster within the Romanian social assistance system on the nearly 5000 mentally ill patients who have died over a five year span in institutionalized centers. Ovidiu’s merit lies not in only in the quality of his investigations, but also in his passion and stubbornness to reach such results without the support of a team or newsroom.” Ovidiu Vanghele, Editor Factual

Ovidiu Vanghele started his career in 2002 when, at the end of his first university year, was hired by MEDIAFAX Agency. During his ten years in the press agency he gradually became interested in more detailed subjects, closer to investigative journalism. He then joined the Pro TV news team, but also contributed to the nertwork’s premium show România, te iubesc!.

Less than a year later, he chose to leave mainstream media, founding the Center for Media Investigations he heads ever since.

In the past years, Ovidiu Vanghele published several press investigations tracing millions of euro spent pointlessly, illegally or simply stolen. His best known investigations focused on the abuses from mental health centers, the Romanian Academy monetary frauds, the National Railway Company’s contracts or the acquisitions made by the bosses of what is known as “Republica Constanța”. Most of these also became judiciary investigations.

He has spent almost the entire 2016 documenting, together with Ana Poenariu, the series “Toți oamenii generalului” (Rise Project), on the personal and financial development of Gabriel Oprea, one of the biggest paradoxes of Romanian politics.

Aside from investigative journalism, the past years he formed and headed the editorial team of EurActiv Romania. At present Ovidiu Vanghele is editor of Romania’s biggest fact-checking platform, factual.ro, a Funky Citizens’ project.

Nominated

“for her 2015 investigation on the doctoral plagiarism of Vice Prime Minister Gabriel Oprea, Emilia Șercan is distinguished with the second Ion Rațiu Journalism Award.“

Emilia Șercan started her apprenticeship in 1996 in her hometown Vatra Dornei where she did pretty much everything, from newspapers to radio and television. In 2000 she joined the event and investigation section of Curierul Național and in 2003 became part of the investigation department of Evenimentul Zilei.

Since 2009 she works as independent journalist and since 2010 she is senior editor of cursdeguvernare.ro. Emilia Șercan is lecturer of the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Science, University of Bucharest.

She coordinated hundreds of investigative stories, among them Mătuşa Tamara, Afacerile din energie ale „băieţilor deştepţi” şi ale lui Bogdan Buzăianu, Afacerile de după FNI ale lui SOV, Averea lui Dan Ioan Popescu, Dosarul Bancorex, Ziarişti – foşti informatori ai Securităţii, Afacerile lui Puiu Popoviciu. In 2008 she joined Realitatea-Cațavencu as head of investigation department, that provided materials for Cotidianul  and Realitatea TV.

Nominations were made by Cătălin Tolontan, Center for Independent Journalism, Active Watch and the Journalism Department of the Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences. The awardee has been selected by the members of CRD’s Board.

Nominated

“for carrying out and publishing in a sports profile publication the most impactful media investigations in the last years; because he proved that one can produce quality journalism also when employed by a mogul media owner and that journalists can interfere with the media owner’s interests, avoiding any compromise; because he was able to defend this independence through his professionalism and his management style that did bring profit to media owners (…)”.

One of the most renowned Romanian sports and investigation journalists, editor in chief and general manager of Gazeta Sporturilor, author of a multi-awarded blog tolo.ro.

Awardee of ten “journalist of the year” distinctions in the past 12 years, Cătălin Tolontan joined in 1990 the student newspaper of the Academy of Economic Studies, thus marking his media debut. In the past decade he was the author along his colleagues of several high profile journalistic investigations, exposing corruption either in Romanian football clubs or high officials in key governmental institutions.

His 2009 investigative piece that lead to the stepping down and later prosecution of the Minister of Youth and Sport, Monica Iacob – Ridzi was mentioned in the 2009 European Commission’s Report on Romania and the USA’s State Department Report on Romania.

The  investigation started in 2013 with colleague Mirela Neag regarding the illegal financing of the Bute Gala, lead to the formal prosecution, early 2015, of several people, including the former Minister of Tourism, Elena Udrea. It  won the prestigious 2014 International News Media Association Awards for Best Use of An Event to Build a News Brand.

Cătălin Tolontan made an impressive speech when receiving the Ion Rațiu Journalism Award

The first receiver of the Journalism Ion Rațiu Award, Cătălin Tolontan, editor-in-chief of Gazeta Sporturilor, admitted on Saturday,  June 6th 2015, in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, that he responded to the invitation made by Rațiu Democracy Center although he avoided public and TV appearances in the last years.

He wore red pants at the award ceremony, as a ”fancy homage to the most tonic figure” he had ever seen on the public stage. “Any journalist is questioning how long his work will resist. I believe that one of the answers came from the most tonic figure I have ever met on the Romanian public stage. As long as there are people like Ion Rațiu to keep their arms wide and to shape a space for dialogue – not with arrogance or with complacency, but with a little courage and a lot of compassion (the way he did in 1991 in the Parliament, when outraged miners forcefully entered the institution during a Parliament sitting –our note) – the public will know that the media stands for them. I thank you and Romanian journalists”, said Mr. Tolontan. At the end of his speech, he also announced that he wants to offer the financial part of the award to a local journalist, to be named by the same organizations that nominated him for the Ion Rațiu Journalism Award.

For the first edition of the award, nominations were made by the Independent Journalism Center, Active Watch and the Romanian Investigation Journalism Center. The winner was selected by the CRD Board members. Mr. Tolontan was nominated “for carrying out and publishing in a sports profile publication the most impactful media investigations in the last years; because he proved that one can produce quality journalism also when employed by amogul media owner and that journalists can interfere with the media owner’s interests, avoiding any compromise; because he was able to defend this independence through his professionalism and his management style that did bring profit to media owners (…)”.

The journalist received the award from the younger son of Ion Rațiu, Nicolae, who had a special gift for the winner: a collection of articles written by his father in the most popular newspapers in the world.

CRD and the Awardee of the Ion Rațiu Journalism Award support a local journalist

Journalist Feri Predescu from Constanța has received the money prize granted together with the Ion Rațiu Journalism Award (1.000 EUR), according to the desire of the first edition awardee –Cătălin Tolontan.

“Thank you for this award, which I receive with emotion. Please accept that the money goes to a journalist from the local media. I am kindly asking the jury and the organizations that selected me to make a proposal”, said Tolontan when receiving the award, during the CRD Workshop (5-7 June 2015).

Feri Predescu has been a journalist since 1993 and has experience in written press, radio and TV. She is currently working for a local radio station in Constanța and is the correspondent of Evenimentul Zilei and of Europa FM.

“Feri Predescu is the outspoken, extremely inconvenient journalist, who oftentimes disturbed because she wanted to discover the truth and make it reachable, revealing scenarios that were supposed to remain undisclosed”. This is how colleagues from Ziua de Constanța describe Feri Predescu.

In 2008, Active Watch – Media Monitoring Agency initiated a campaign to support Feri Predescu, who had lost a libel lawsuit filed by the former mayor of Constanța, Radu Mazăre, being forced to pay him 15.000 EUR. According to Active Watch, the final and irrevocable decision against the journalist is “a victory of corruption and organized crime against freedom of speech”.

The initiative of Active Watch was supported by well-known journalists and by media NGO representatives.

Although the journalist made an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, she is still forced to pay the amount of 15.000 EURO in the meantime, according to the rescheduling decided by the judges. Therefore the money received from CRD came right on time, being directed in the account of this debt, as mentioned by the journalist.