The work of more than 370 journalists, including those from PREMIUM TIMES, who collaborated on the Panama Papers project was honoured with the Investigation of the Year prize at the Data Journalism Awards in Vienna, Austria on Thursday.

The Panama Papers investigation was based on a 2.6 terabyte trove of data obtained by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with ICIJ and a network of more than 100 media organizations, including Nigeria’s PREMIUM TIMES.

The leaked dataset of 11.5 million files from Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca, exposed the inner workings of the secretive offshore financial system, and revealed hidden companies linked to politicians, criminals, sports stars and more.

Accepting the Investigation of the Year award on behalf of ICIJ, data journalist Cécile Schilis-Gallego, paid tribute to the global team of reporters and the source of the information.

“I want to take a second to highlight the brilliant work of journalists who partner with us – especially Süddeutsche Zeitung – but also the courage of whistleblowers who take incredible risks to help us tell stories that participate to the democratic debate on offshore finance. Without the data, we would not be able to produce those stories,” she said.

It is the second year in a row that an ICIJ project has won top honours at the Global Editors Network-hosted event, after Swiss Leaks took home the Investigation of the Year award in 2015.

The Swiss Leaks investigation, which published in early 2015 in collaboration with French newspaper Le Monde and dozens of global media outlets, was also awarded the prize for business reporting at the Society of Professional Journalists’ Washington D.C. branch Dateline Awards at a ceremony at the National Press Club earlier this week. It was one of seven awards won by the Centre for Public Integrity at the event.

feldido:
Seems no one is interested in Panama Papers anymore in Nigeria...
Who Panama Papers epp sef when Hungry won finish people?

Shym3xx:
Lol.

More like CIA won an award for a terrible job since they didn't get their primary target. Just as Obama won the Nobel peace prize despite fighting more wars than any US president ever lol.

Where missy89 at? Ya boys at Langley ought to be celebrating this feat right now - too bad they couldn't get the Russian bear. Sad lol.

Bolustic:
Click like if you think Sahara Reporters is contributing to the growth of democracy in Nigeria
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eph12:
After all the noise this Panama papers generated what's the result? I thought some Nigerian names were mentioned?