Three Turkish journalists awarded by EU body

ISTANBUL

Three Turkish journalists, including daily Hürriyet reporter Nurettin Kurt, were honored with the European Union Investigative Journalism Awards for the first time this year at a ceremony in Istanbul on June 29 for original investigative reporting in 2014 that had significant social impact in Turkey.

Kurt was awarded the second best prize, namely the Second Best Investigative Report of 2014, for his report titled “Million dollar-official car” published in Hürriyet on Dec. 13, 2014, referring to the cost of the official car of the Directorate of Religious Affairs’ (Diyanet) president. 

The jury said the story’s “content has a unique value in terms of public debate. The concerned official returned the vehicle allocated for his use following public discussion brought about by this report.”

The best prize was awarded to Fatih Yağmur for his coverage of the story titled “Truck Report” published in news website Radikal on Jan. 3, 2014. The jury underscored Yağmur’s story as “highly relevant” as “it broke as an exclusive story when it first came out in 2014” and the subject matter – trucks owned by the country’s national intelligence agency that were laden with weapons and heading to Syria – continues to have repercussions. 

“The story is the product of pure investigative journalism at the highest international standards,” it said.

Third place for the Best Investigative Report of 2014 went to Tahir Alperen for his report titled “Bullets that killed two police not fired from weapons belonging to four people shot dead,” published on t24.com.tr on Nov. 4, 2014.