The SVT television region of Goteborg has won the prestigious Grand Prix of the Prix CIRCOM for the second year in succession.
The award was announced last night (25 May) at a gala show in The Azores, hosted by Portuguese broadcaster RTP at which the best programmes from public service media operators in the regions of Europe were honoured.
The winning programme was Grades For Sale, an investigation into organised cheating to gain admission to Swedish universities. The journalistic team tracked down students and organisers of cheating and claimed the impact could be felt across all higher education in Europe. Collecting the award were Kenny Adersjo and Martin Sundborn, who said:
“We are delighted to receive this prestigious award, it’s the acknowledgement of the great work of our entire team.”
Last year, SVT Goteborg won the Grand Prix with Absolut Svensk, a programme on how immigrants adapt to being part of Swedish society.
The sponsor of the Grand Prix award was ORF Austria, represented by its managing director Gerhard Draxler and the award was presented by Tone Kunst, President of CIRCOM, and the President of the Azores government, Vasco Alves Cordeiro.
The gala event was streaming across Europe by RTP and CIRCOM.
Other broadcasters awarded included Czech TV Ostrava (categories of Documentary and Music). TV2 Lorry (News Programme and Viewer Involvement) and TV2 Nord, Denmark (Minorities in Society), Omrop Fryslan in The Netherlands (Entertainment), RTBF (News Report on a European Issue), NRK Hordaland (Most Original and Innovative). Individual awards were won by Thomas Mignon (RTBF for Rising Star) and Dusan Jemuovic (RTS Serbia for Video Journalism). Grades For Sale won the category Investigative Journalism.
A further award was made, sponsored by the European Parliament, to RTVS Slovakia for a feature in the Citizenship Co-production series.
Prix 2017 sponsors:
ORF Austria, sponsor of Grand Prix
RTÉ Ireland, sponsor of Documentary
France Télévisions, sponsor of Minorities in Society
SVT Sweden, sponsor of News Programme and Viewer Involvement
TG4 Ireland, sponsor of Music
TVP Poland, sponsor of Most Original and Innovative
TVR Romania, sponsor of Rising Star
Council of Europe, sponsor of Investigative Journalism
BBC UK, sponsor of Video Journalism
European Committee of the Regions, sponsor of News Report on a European Issue
TPA Asturias-TVG Galicia, sponsors of Entertainment
In addition, participating stations in the CIRCOM co-production and co-operation project Citizenship, supported by the European Parliament, will have a Special Award for the best features which attracts a further trophy, award and visit to the conference and awards.