Three ERR staff presented with Bonnier Award for investigative journalism
Three ERR journalists were awarded this year's Bonnier Award for investigative journalism, sharing the honor with two more journalists from Ekspress Grupp/Delfi.
The awards were presented by Hans-Jacob Bonnier, Executive Vice President of Bonnier Business Press, at a ceremony at business daily Äripäev's office Wednesday (see gallery).
A Swedish media concern, the Bonnier Group owns Äripäev, along with over 170 other firms across 15 countries.
The prize of €7,500 was presented for three separate articles by ERR journalists: Karin Koppel, Madis Hindre and Aleksander Krjukov for their coverage of the "Eastern transport scandal" – the controversy over Prime Minister Kaja Kallas' spouse and his business ties to Russia, which broke in late August last year.
ERR was the first to report that some of these activities included a significant stake in a firm which had continued to facilitate overland export, on behalf of another, related firm, of components to Russia, 18 months after the invasion of Ukraine had begun.
These were all also translated into English: "Peaministri abikaasale osaliselt kuuluv ettevõte jätkab vedusid Venemaale," (August 23, by Aleksander Krjukov, English translation here), "Kallas: mina ei tegele oma abikaasa äritegevusega," also published on August 23, by Madis Hindre (English version here) and "Arvo Hallik ei kavatse osalusest Stark Warehousingus loobuda," (August 29, by Karin Koppel, in English here).
Additionally, Holger Roonemaa and Herman Kelomees of daily Eesti Päevaleht and its sister publication, investigative weekly Eesti Ekspress, were honored for their coverage of the Slava Ukraini controversy.
Roonemaa and Kelomees had in April and May last year exposed the sums which had been misappropriated from a charity set up to aid Ukraine and headed by Johanna-Maria Lehtme, who was elected to the Riigikogu with Eesti 200 in March, off the back of an electoral campaign which expressly referenced her as a helper of Ukraine.
The articles uncovered the web of personalities involved in the activities, while the overall media coverage led to Lehtme stepping down as an MP after just a few weeks in office.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Mirjam Mäekivi
