MCCM
RESILIENCE
OUR MEDIA
Journalist Ilir Gashi is nominated for the 2023 European Press Prize in the Distinguished Reporting category for his piece “The alternative Balkan postal system – or how to transport mysterious powder across borders”, published on K2.0. Co-nominees are Dina Hajrullahu and Arrita Katona from K2.0 who created illustrations for the story.
The longform article, produced within the Resilience project, is about the importance of bus drivers and passengers travelling across the Balkan countries for the safe transport of various necessities from one address to another. It tells you about maintaining connections across borders and, as the author puts it: It’s not things that travel, it’s people. And only when people can’t travel do they send things. Even then, in fact, it’s not things that travel — it’s people’s feelings that travel.
“Today journalism is put under enormous pressure from social media, and there is always this imperative of being quick, short and instantly catchy, or else no one will read you. Funnily enough, I myself believed in that. However, it seems that there is actually a growing audience interest in slow-cooked storytelling journalism. Sadly, not many media and journalists have the opportunity to explore this space, and perhaps we need to advocate for it more strongly”, Gashi explained for SEENPM.
The Distinguished Reporting Award of the European Press Prize celebrates exceptional reporting, telling a story in the best possible way. This year’s European Press Prize shortlist counts articles and projects selected among hundreds of submissions coming from more than 40 countries, and published in more than 35 languages.Read the nominated article, available in Albanian, English and Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian.
