The shortlist for the inaugural GUE/NGL Award for ‘Journalists, Whistleblowers and Defenders of the Right to Information’ has been unveiled.

Dedicated to individuals or groups who have been intimidated and/or persecuted for uncovering the truth and exposing it to the public, this year’s award is named in honour of the late Maltese journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The winner(s) will be announced at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday 29th May 2018.

The nominees are:

– Gjorgji Lazarevski and Zvonko Kostovski

Two intelligence officers whose revelations about wiretapping of over 20,000 political opponents by ex-FYROM PM Nikola Gruevski’s government led to the cabinet’s resignation.

– Jan Kuciak

Slovak investigative journalist who specialised in tax fraud amongst businessmen with links to top Slovak politicians, and whose murder in February toppled the Fico government.

– Julian Assange

Founder of WikiLeaks who has been holed up inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012 to avoid probable extradition to the US.

– Maria Efimova

Former Pilatus Bank employee-turned-whistleblower exposed corruption relating to the Azeri and Maltese leaderships. Currently in Greece but wanted by Cypriot and Maltese authorities.

– Raphaël Halet

Former PwC employee behind LuxLeaks alongside Antoine Deltour. He is still on trial for leaking documents that exposed multinationals’ tax evasion in Luxembourg.

The winner will receive 5000 euros for his/her work.

You can find out more about the award and the jury here or on the GUE/NGL Facebook page.