Overview
- The Medienverband der freien Presse, a coalition of about 350 publishers, presented the 2025 Press Freedom Prize in Berlin to Susanne Koelbl and Paul Ronzheimer for outstanding foreign, war and crisis reporting.
- Paul Ronzheimer, deputy editor of Bild, has long reported from Ukraine, Syria and Iraq, and in 2025 covered Israel before being briefly detained in Lebanon.
- Susanne Koelbl, a veteran Der Spiegel correspondent focused on Central Asia and the Middle East, emphasized that only on-the-ground reporting can fully convey reality.
- ARD chair Florian Hager delivered the laudation stressing the heightened value of press freedom, while MVFP chief Philipp Welte praised the winners for accepting risks, restrictions and hostility.
- Ronzheimer urged publishers to equip and defend their reporters, and the €10,000 prize continues a tradition that has honored recipients such as ICJK and Can Dündar.