Overview
The Legatum Institute founded the Courage in Journalism Award in 2018 following the death of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the widely-respected Maltese journalist who was killed by a car bomb in October 2017. In discussion with the Caruana Galizia family, we decided to create this award to honour her legacy and to shine a light on the very real dangers facing journalists working in many countries around the world.
Across the world today, media freedoms are under threat. This should be a cause for concern for all of us – journalists play a vital role in reporting the news and holding governments to account. In too many parts of the world, this duty comes at a price.
The Legatum Institute decided to make this a posthumous award, to recognise a journalist whose life – and death – had made a significant impact. Sadly, the need for courageous journalism seems greater today than ever before. We owe a huge debt to the men and women who paid the ultimate price to ensure their readers, viewers, and listeners received fair and truthful accounts of the facts.
The Award judges are:
- Con Coughlin, Defence Editor, The Telegraph
- Lord Freud, House of Lords, Formerly Financial Times
- Christina Lamb OBE, Chief Foreign Correspondent, Sunday Times
- Abeer Saady, International Advisor, The Ethical Journalism Network
- Mike Thomson, World Affairs Correspondent, BBC
To read the profiles of the journalists who were killed during 2021 and have been considered for the Award please click here.