The International Association of Religion Journalists (IARJ) and Fscire are pleased to announce that Italian journalist Federica Tourn was awarded the first edition of the Piazza Grande Religion Journalism Award for her coverage about religious discrimination in Italian prisons Dio dietro le sbarre / God behind bars.

The international jury also awarded three special mentions to journalists Gerald Drißner (Austria) for Kolossale Ambitionen einer kleinen Stadt / The colossal ambitions of a little town; László Szőcs (Hungary) for Megtalált jegygyűrű / A wedding ring recovered; and Chiara Zappa (Italy), for Papa Francesco ad Abu Dhabi: La Chiesa in terra araba / Pope Francis in Abu Dhabi: The Church on Arab soil.

The Piazza Grande Religion Journalism Award was launched by the IARJ and Fscire in Bologna in March 2019 during the annual conference of the European Academy of Religion (EuARe) to honour the work of journalists covering faith and religion in Europe, including Iceland and Russia, and the countries surrounding the Mediterranean basin. The award program is run by the IARJ and funded by Fscire.

In its first edition, it received 71 entries. The entries came from journalists based in countries including Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Italy, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. The IARJ and the FSCIRE thank all of the participants in the contest for entering their stories to the first edition of the Piazza Grande Religion Journalism Award.

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