The prize will be awarded again in 2013: Submissions may be sent from now until 31 July 2013.

The Czech journalist and political analyst Martin Ehl is this year’s winner of the “Writing for CEE” European journalism prize. Ehl, a senior editor of the renowned Czech business daily “Hospodárské Noviny”, wrote a series of incisive articles covering current issues in Europe. “Martin Ehl shows us how entertaining sophisticated, high-quality journalism can be,” said Ambros Kindel, the chairman of the jury, in his praise of the winner.

APA – Austria Presse Agentur and UniCredit Bank Austria will present the award for EUR 5,000 Monday evening in Vienna. The guest of honour at this year’s award ceremony will be Wolfgang Petritsch, the Austrian Ambassador to the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and the former High Representative of the International Community for Bosnia and Herzegovina. His speech will be dedicated to the topic of “The EU and Southeastern Europe – Challenges and Prospects”.

The annual award is meant to transcend the boundaries of editorial departments and national borders and to stimulate the journalistic examination of European issues and integration. The prize aims to encourage closer ties between countries and make a contribution to overcoming prejudice.

The jury, which meets in various constellations, is made up of the Slovak journalist Michael Berko, the Bulgarian author Janina Dragostinova, the Czech communications expert Milan Smid, the communications advisor Ildiko Füredi-Kolarik, the Polish journalist Pawel Bravo, the Hungarian journalist Julia Varadi, the Slovene winner of last year’s award, Meta Krese, UniCredit Bank Austria’s CEE spokesman, Tiemon Kiesenhofer, and the CEE communications advisor and APA’s long-standing editor-in-chief for foreign affairs, Ambros Kindel.

The previous winners were the Czech journalist Lubos Palata (2004), the Bulgarian author Diana Ivanova (2005), the Bosnian journalist Sefik Dautbegovic (2006), the Austrian author Martin Leidenfrost (2007), Anna Koktsidou, a radio journalist who was born in Greece and raised in Germany (2008), the Austrian journalist Florian Klenk (2009), the Bosnian author Azra Nuhefendic (2010) and last year’s winner, the Slovene journalist and photographer Meta Krese.

The winning entry, a selection of the texts submitted and additional information about the prize will be available online at www.apa.at/cee-award starting on 20 November. The prize will be awarded again in 2013: Submissions may be sent from now until 31 July 2013.

Enquiries:

APA - Austria Presse Agentur, Marketing & Communications

Petra Haller, tel. +43 (0)1 36060-5710;

e-mail: qfusb/ibmmfsAbqb/bu

Bank Austria, International Media Relations

Tiemon Kiesenhofer, tel. +43 (0) 50505 - 56036

e-mail: ujfnpo/ljftfoipgfsAvojdsfejuhspvq/bu