Financial Times chief foreign affairs columnist Gideon Rachman has scooped the €10,000 European Press Prize commentator award.
Rachman picked up the award at a ceremony in Prague beating Guardian columnist George Monbiot and the Irish Times columnist Fintan O’Toole, who was honoured as runner-up in the commentator category.
European press prize committee member Heikelina Verrijn Stuart, who presented the award to Rachman, said: "In his writings we hear a balance, fair and judicious voice.
“He leads his readers around corners that offer vistas that invite them to think anew.”
Rachman joined the Financial Times in 2006, prior to which he worked for The Economist for 15 years in a number of roles including foreign correspondent.
The shortlisted pieces (which can be read here) were headlined: "Putin’s Survival Strategy is Lies and Violence","Nation States are as Sensitive as Humans" and "A Global Test of American Power".
Commenting on all the awarded work, former Sunday Times editor Harold Evans, chairman of the judges, said: “I salute all of the winners of course: a brave young French journalist exploring the truth in rape claims in East Congo; a brilliant multimedia journey as young Portuguese jihadists lose their moral bearings; a magisterial analysis of our foreign relationships; a passionate revelation of the dark world inside a Polish psychiatric hospital for children; and much heartbreakingly vivid reporting along Europe’s desperate migrant path. They are victors to be proud of.”
The European Press Prize awards were founded in 2012 by seven foundations with media connections, including the Guardian Foundation and Thomson Reuters Foundation.
A full list of those journalists honoured can be found here.
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