Zurich Journalism Prize 2011 awarded
On Tuesday evening, the 31st Zurich Journalism Award was presented at the Casinotheater in Winterthur. The four awards, each worth 10,000 francs, went to journalists from the *Tagesanzeiger*, the *Beobachter*, and the *Landbote*.
The price for the Complete Works received Michael Meier (Tagesanzeiger) for his reporting on the subject of religions. Meier (pictured) has been writing about religion and society as a specialist journalist for the Tagesanzeiger for almost 25 years. "In his field, he is a cultural critic in the best sense of the word," said jury member Marco Meier (Radio DRS) in his laudation. He clarifies by not only describing facts, but also tirelessly classifying them. He reads the signs of the times with an eye to the future, said laudator Marco Meier.
The winners in the category Newspaper hot Dagmar Appelt and Katharina Baumann. They were recognized for their elaborate in Country Messenger published article series "Leo's Way to Freedom, Poverty in Winterthur". The two award winners work for the Landbote, a comparatively small regional newspaper that has the courage and provides the resources to make such well-founded article series possible, as jury member Andrea Masüger (Südostschweiz) noted in his tribute.
In the category Magazine convinced Otto Hostettler and Dominique Strebel with their contribution "A Dark Chapter. The authors succeeded in doing what journalism at its best aims to do, said jury member Susanne Mühlemann (Bilanz). The article published in the Observer-Mühlemann said that the article published in the September 3, 2010 issue of the magazine about children in care and "Verdingkinder," young people from disorderly or difficult family backgrounds who were sent to prison or closed institutions by the authorities for an indefinite period of time, got under the skin. "Strebel and Hostettler have helped expose a grievance and demand redress," Mühlemann acknowledged. The article also had an impact by leading to an official apology by the authorities and a political process.
Maurice Thiriet won in the category Young talent with his article "The Imaginary Astronaut" (Daily Gazette, August 17, 2010). He did not let himself be blinded by brash statements that are popular in today's media business, praised jury president Fredy Gsteiger (Radio DRS) in his laudation. The attractive story of a young woman from Toggenburg who made it to Nasa astronaut was readily retold by many. Thiriet, on the other hand, got to the bottom of the matter and debunked the "stratospheric" story in the Tagesanzeiger.
The jury selected the award-winning works from 120 entries. The award ceremony was attended by numerous prominent guests from the worlds of business, media and politics. Urs Rohner, who has been Chairman of the Board of Directors of Credit Suisse since the end of April, gave a speech before the jury honored the entries and the work as a whole. The satirical finale of the event was provided by cabaret artist Lorenz Keiser.
Biographies, texts and the laudations can be found in the 2011 awards brochure: Zh-journalist-prize.ch/pdf/2011/ZJP_11.pdf.
