A sole-collective White Crow award this year was bestowed posthumously to Jan Kuciak and to a group of investigative journalists at a ceremonial presentation in Bratislava on Saturday. Moreover, the White Crow Board gave awards to the Czech reporter Pavla Holcová from the Czech Centre of Investigative Journalism, Xenia Makarova of the Trend weekly, Trend's former editor Zuzana Petková, Monika Tódová of the Denník N daily, the head of the investigation team at Aktuality.sk Marek Vagovič and to Adam Valček of the Sme daily.
The award, designed to recognise acts of civic courage in defence of public interest, was given by the Fair-play Alliance and Via Iuris for the eleventh year. By awarding only journalists this year, the board wanted to highlight how exceptional the situation they faced was. "Until Jan Kuciak's murder, we believed that there was no threat of loss of life for public service in this country. This event was such a shock to society that we want to pay tribute to Jan Kuciak's life. Therefore, we didn't want to add any other stories to it this year," said Via Iuris executive director Milan Šagát. Fair-play Alliance chief Zuzana Wienk added this was an expression of gratitude and respect and pointed to the irreplaceable value of the journalist's profession for society, chiefly in breakthrough situations.
For the first time this year, the White Crow Board gave special thanks to the For a Decent Slovakia initiative. Since some of its organisers have entered politics, they could not become laureates of the White Crow Award, as it is a civic award. "However, the board couldn't overlook the importance and value of the initiative in the first half of 2018 and, therefore, it decided to award a special thanks to protest organisers all over Slovakia, as well as across the world," said organisers.
The laureates were chosen by the White Crow Board, and received the crow statues crafted by sculptor Fero Guldan.
