Skopje, 25 March 2025 (MIA) – The series of investigative stories about energy sector tenders, produced by the TV show Code, won the top Nikola Mladenov award, handed out by the Macedonian Institute for Media. The second prize for best investigative story went to the series of articles by Petar Klincharski about State Lottery, published by Radio Free Europe. The Investigative Reporting Lab (IRL) won the third prize for “Stolen Lives”.

The prize for most innovative journalistic product this year is shared by the IRL team for the Kichevo Mobile Newsroom product, and the Code team for the video story about the kidnapping and killing of the teenager Vanja Gjorcheska.

The photojournalism award went to Gjorgi Lichovski for his photo “Hunting Meteors”.

Several journalists, including Miroslava Simonovska, Meri Jordanovska and Antonija Janevska, Biljana Nikolovska Todorova, Aleksandar Dimitrievski, Aleksandar Metodijev and Suzana Miceva, received certificates for their engagement.

A total of 36 investigative stories, five journalistic products and 16 photographs were submitted to this year’s call.

The winners received monetary rewards in addition to certificates in amount of 60,000 denars (first prize), 40,000 denars (second prize) and 20,000 denars (third prize).

Nikola Mladenov, owner and chief editor of Fokus weekly, considered one of the country’s leading journalists, died in a car accident in the early hours of March 23, 2013. In his honor, the Macedonian Institute for Media named the annual award for best investigative story, presented since 2001, after him.

Photo: MIA