Overview
- At a ceremony in Cologne, the award was presented to Israel correspondent Sophie von der Tann and Istanbul/Tehran correspondent Katharina Willinger.
- Speaking on ARD’s Morgenmagazin, von der Tann called the claims against her baseless and described her reporting as a balance of empathy and professional distance.
- Israeli officials Ron Prosor and Arye Shalicar had publicly accused her of bias, and police reported roughly 100 protesters outside the WDR venue during the event.
- BR program director Thomas Hinrichs and the prize jury defended the choice, with juror Claus Kleber citing a unanimous decision, as Reporters Without Borders warned of intimidation by state representatives naming journalists.
- A coalition filed program complaints and cited a shared Omer Bartov article and a reported use of the term “Vorgeschichte” as proof of one‑sidedness, which von der Tann and BR reject.