2026 Zurich Journalism Award: Felix Schaad and Four Investigative Reports Honored
The Zurich Journalism Prize Foundation has awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award to cartoonist Felix Schaad. Four other awards went to investigative reports from German-speaking Switzerland—ranging from the Gaza War to the environmental scandal on Lake Constance.
2026 Zurich Journalism Award: Cartooning, War, and Climate Change
The 2026 Zurich Journalism Prize was awarded for the 46th time. On Tuesday evening at the Kaufleuten Club Hall in Zurich, the seven-member expert jury honored cartoonist Felix Schaad with the Lifetime Achievement Award and recognized four other works for their investigative depth, linguistic brilliance, and social relevance. A total of 201 entries from all over German-speaking Switzerland were submitted for this year’s award.
Felix Schaad: More Than a Quarter-Century of Political Cartooning
Felix Schaad is receiving the award for his work as one of Switzerland’s most influential and distinctive chroniclers. From 1999 until his retirement in 2026, he shaped the visual identity of the *Tages-Anzeiger* as its staff cartoonist. With a keen eye and a distinctive style, he captured Switzerland’s political elite and gained widespread recognition for his incisive cartoons as well as the comic strip «Eva,» which he developed with Claude Jaermann.
Karin Wenger and the Aftermath of the Gaza War
Karin Wenger («Annabelle») received an award for her report «Away from the Line of Fire.» In it, she sheds light on the lives of Israeli soldiers in the Panamanian coastal town of Playa Venao, where they are trying to come to terms with the trauma of the Gaza War. The jury praised the piece as an important historical document that masterfully combines reporting, political analysis, and essay writing without passing judgment.
The investigative team of Sascha Britsko, Oliver Zihlmann, and Boris Gygax («Das Magazin») received an award for «Travis the Creator.» Through three years of investigative work, the team succeeded in exposing the structure of systematic abuse within Zurich’s party and fashion scenes. The piece reconstructs a power imbalance, gives the victims a voice, and at the same time addresses the limitations of the sexual criminal law at the time.
Lake Constance Scandal and Newcomer Award
Sandro Büchler, Jochen Tempelmann, and Davide De Martis («St. Galler Tagblatt») were honored for their three-part series «Environmental Scandal on Lake Constance.» The investigation focused on the discharge of the carcinogenic chemical PFOS into Lake Constance by an industrial company. The journalists’ tenacity was particularly highlighted: it was only after winning two cases before the Federal Supreme Court that they were able to reveal the full extent of the cover-up.
Konstantin Kreibich («Zentralplus») received the Newcomer Award at the 2026 Zurich Journalism Awards for his investigative report «They Lied to the Investigators—He Became a Multibillionaire.» Drawing on numerous sources and interviews with those involved, Kreibich demonstrated how employees on Swiss cruise ships were pressured into systematically lying to inspectors.
AI as the Topic of the Guest Lecture
As part of the awards ceremony, Peter G. Kirchschläger, a professor of ethics, delivered a keynote address on the topic «AI—The End or a New Beginning for Human Work? An Ethical Perspective.» He argued that the logic of earlier eras no longer applies to artificial intelligence, as it is being specifically deployed to replace humans in professional tasks. This affects all professional tasks—including journalism—and not, as in the past, only jobs requiring little or no qualifications. In light of the decline in paid employment, Kirchschläger proposed decoupling the means of subsistence from traditional paid work in order to arrive at a broader understanding of social contribution.
The Zurich Journalism Prize is one of the most prestigious awards for journalism in Switzerland. Since 1981, it has recognized outstanding journalistic achievements in print and online media. Each of the main prizes is worth 10,000 Swiss francs, while the Newcomer Prize is worth 5,000 Swiss francs. The foundation is supported by the media companies CH Media, NZZ, Ringier, and Tamedia.
The award-winning works and laudatory speeches are available at: https://www.zh-journalistenpreis.ch
