The Daily Press Guardian Prize 2022 was awarded to journalists in Augsburg, Berlin and Bamberg on Tuesday in Frankfurt am Main. Minister of State for Culture and Media Claudia Roth (Greens) praised the research that led to the discovery of affairs in a video message. The editors Holger Sabinsky-Wolf and Michael Stifter received the first prize of 10,000 euros from the Augsburg Generalas announced by the “Freedom of the Press” foundation based in Bad Vilbel.
The two journalists uncovered the affair involving CSU member of parliament Georg Nüßlein and CSU member of parliament Alfred Sauter. At the beginning of the corona pandemic, they used the shortage of protective masks to broker them for a total of six to seven-digit commission payments. The research against resistance from those affected led to the establishment of a committee of inquiry by the Bavarian state parliament and to court proceedings.
The second prize (6,000 euros) went to the author team Kersten Augustin and Sebastian Erb from Berlin taz for your research on right-wing extremist incidents in the ranks of the Bundestag police. It triggered investigations by the Bundestag Presidium. The third prize (4,000 euros) went to the newspaper’s local editorial team Franconian day in Bamberg for her work on the so-called “bonus affair” in the Bamberg town hall. There, payments were made to employees over long periods of time without a legal basis and with pretended justifications – to the detriment of the taxpayer.
The winners were selected by an independent jury chaired by Moritz Döbler (editor-in-chief Rheinische PostDüsseldorf). The “Freedom of the Press” foundation is supported by the publishers’ associations and has been awarding the Guardian Prize since 1969.