A Greek, German, and British consortium has won the 2023 Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for investigating the Adriana shipwreck, which left over 600 migrants dead off Pylos in Greece.

The joint investigation by the Greek investigative outlet Solomon, in collaboration with Forensis, the German public broadcaster StrgF/ARD, and the British newspaper The Guardian revealed how the deadliest migrant shipwreck in recent history happened as a result of the actions taken by the Greek Coast Guard.

The work titled Under the unwatchful eye of the authorities’ deactivated cameras: dying in the darkest depths of the Mediterranean also reveals inconsistencies in the Greek authorities’ official accounts.

“Today, as every year, we honour Daphne Caruana Galizia’s memory with a prize that is a powerful reminder of her fight for truth and justice. Journalists around the world continue to be targeted just for doing their job, but they refuse to be silenced. This Parliament stands by their side in this long-standing battle to safeguard press freedom and media pluralism in Europe and beyond,” European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said during the ceremony which awarded the consortium €20,000.

The investigation took an in-depth look into the events surrounding the loss of the fishing trawler Adriana in June of this year some 50 nautical miles off Pylos, in south-western Greece, killing over 600 migrants who had left Libya just a few days earlier.

Over 20 interviews were conducted with survivors, while court documents and coastguard sources were deeply looked into. The revelations detail missed rescue opportunities and offers of assistance that were ignored, whereas the survivors’ testimonies indicate that it was the attempts by the Greek coastguard to tow the trawler that ultimately caused its sinking. The Greek coastguard denied that it attempted to tow the trawler.

The fateful night was simulated by Forensis using interactive 3D modelling of the trawler thanks to data from the coastguard’s log and testimony of the coast guard vessel’s captain, as well as from flight paths, maritime traffic data, satellite imagery, and videos taken by nearby shipping vessels and other sources.

The teams that contributed to the story are:

For Solomon: Stavros Malichudis, Iliana Papangeli, Corina Petridi

For Forensis: Stefanos Levidis, Christina Varvia, Georgia Skartadou, Andreas Makas, Ebrahem Farooqui, Dimitra Andritsou, Peter Polack, Eyal Weizman, Jasper Humpert, Miriam Rainer, Salma Barakat, Zac Ioannidis, Elizabeth Breiner

For StrgF/ARD: Armin Ghassim, Sulaiman Tadmory, Timo Robben, Sebastian Heidelberger

For The Guardian: Giorgos Christides, Katy Fallon, Lydia Emmanouilidou, and Julian Busch

The Daphne Caruana Prize was initiated by a decision of the Bureau of the European Parliament in December 2019 as a tribute to Daphne Caruana Galizia, a Maltese anti-corruption investigative journalist and blogger who was killed in a car bomb attack in 2017.

The Prize occurs annually on the anniversary of the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. It awards outstanding journalism that promotes or defends the core principles and values of the European Union such as human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, rule of law, and human rights.

More than 700 journalists from across the EU submitted their stories for consideration for this prize and 12 were shortlisted, including The Shift News’ Caroline Muscat, before the jury’s overall winner was decided.

Do you think that the jury made the right choice?