Zurich Journalism Prize for four works and Schawinski's life's work

The Zurich Journalism Prize was awarded for the 42nd time on June 28, 2022. This comes at a time when journalism is facing increasing mistrust, even in Switzerland, as Andrea Masüger, President of the Zurich Journalism Prize Foundation, explained in his welcoming address. This makes the high standard of journalism in Switzerland and the fact that more and more works by local journalists are being awarded prestigious prizes in Switzerland and abroad all the more gratifying.

This year, the jury of the Zurich Journalism Award presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Roger Schawinski. A journalist, author and media entrepreneur who has helped shape the Swiss radio and television sector in particular for decades with courage and intelligence as well as provocation and the urge to be in the spotlight. The laudatory speech for the 77-year-old Roger Schawinski stated that his temperament, professional enthusiasm and drive would make him a journalistic role model.

174 entries from all over German-speaking Switzerland were submitted for the 2022 Journalism Prize. Out of these, the seven-member jury of journalists and publicists nominated nine stories for the Zurich Journalism Prize and three for the Newcomer Prize and has now awarded prizes to four entries.

Yves Demuth from the "Beobachter" received a prize for his research "Akte Bührle: Zwangsarbeit in der Spinnerei", in which he shows how hundreds of girls were forced to work against their will in a textile factory owned by entrepreneur Emil Bührle after the Second World War. The author not only tracked down one of the last contemporary witnesses and examined files from various archives, but also uncovered that this practice was not only approved by the state authorities, but even encouraged by them.

Angelika Hardegger from the "Neue Zürcher Zeitung" was awarded a prize for her story "Dear farmers, let's talk". She contrasts the often academic-looking agricultural analyses with a first-person text with small portraits and traces how Swiss farmers and society have become strangers to each other. The author traces the reasons for this in a "surprising montage", in which she addresses criticism without moralizing, but rather encouraging her protagonists to engage in dialogue, according to the laudation.

Rebecca Wyss from "Sonntags-Blick" won a prize for her report "I'm happy when someone just says faggot". The author accompanied young people who, as homosexuals and trans people, are the target of hatred in their everyday lives in Switzerland.