LONDON, COPENHAGEN and AMSTERDAM, September 6, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

One of Spain's most famous journalists, Juan Luis Cebrian, founding editor of El Pais in Madrid and now CEO of the Prisa media group, is to become a judge. He joins the jury chairman Sir Harold Evans, editor at large for Reuters and once editor of the Sunday Times in London. He leads a judging panel of Yevgenia Albats from the New Times in Moscow, Sylvie Kauffman from Le Monde in Paris and Joergen Ejboel, former editor of Jyllands Posten in Copenhagen. 

Henceforth the judges will be able to award a special prize alongside 10,000 euro prizes for investigative reporting, distinguished writing, brilliant opinion writing and innovation. Peter Preston, former editor of The Guardian in London and chairman of the preparatory judging team, said: "We want to salute excellence wherever we find it, this special additional prize, crossing boundaries, gives us the flexibility to single out such quality."

Sir Harold Evans said: "The very best in European journalism our prize honours is exemplified by Juan Luis Cebrian, whom we welcome to our panel. He risked all in the way he roused Spain against the military coup of 1981. His leadership at El Pais is one of the most inspiring demonstrations of the moral energy brought to democracy by honest news reporting, opinion writing of integrity, and sheer, downright enterprise."

Juan Luis Cebrian said: "Journalism may be in flux, but quality journalism remains the basis of all our democratic freedoms. The foundations behind these prizes are bent on building something that encourages that quality. It's an honour to be able to help."

Entries for the 2013 prize - reaching out across 47 different European countries - open on September 9 and close on November 29. Last year's winners came from Greece, Denmark, Britain and the Ukraine.

The organisations that founded the prizes are the Stichting Democratie en Media and Veronica Foundations in Amsterdam, the Guardian Foundation in London, the JP/Politiken Foundations in Copenhagen, and the Reuters Foundation, together with the Media Development Loan Fund in Prague. The judging panel will make its final choices on March 17 at a special award ceremony in London. Entry details are available on the EPP website: http://www.europeanpressprize.com.

SOURCE European Press Prize