Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs awarded on 6 December the Lorenzo Natali Grand Prize 2010 to Yader Luna for his article "Palabra de Mujer" (Woman's Word). In this Award Ceremony held in Brussels Town Hall 17 journalists from all around the world were awarded Natali Prizes for their outstanding journalistic work covering issues of development, human rights and democracy.

After the call for papers launched in May, more than 1100 journalists submitted their work to compete for the Lorenzo Natali Prize 2010. An independent jury, led by Kai Niklasch, a senior journalist for the German public television broadcaster ZDF, selected this year's winners, who in addition to the 17 journalists awarded, also included 12 regional prizes for written and online media along with a special prize for TV and a special prize for radio journalists.

The article awarded with the Lorenzo Natali Grand Prize 2010, written by Yader Luna and published under the title “Palabra de Mujer” (Word of Woman) by the newspaper La Brújula Semanal, describes the everyday life of a group of women in the community of Bocana de Paiwas, located in central Nicaragua. The article portrays how these women, in their daily combat against violence, have founded a small radio station to denounce men who mistreat women.

Main subjects covered by Lorenzo Natali Awards 2010 Prize Winners

• Child sacrifices in Ivory Coast
• Forced premature marriages of young girls in Egypt
• Cocoa market scandal in Ivory Coast
• Pollution of rivers in India
• Right of education for children in India
• Brazilian ammunition export
• Indigenous migrants struggle to survive in Mexico
• Blood-bath at football stadium in Guinea
• One child policy and child abduction in China

Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs highlighted how the work of journalists who report human stories and realities all around the World, is an invaluable contribution to the promotion of good governance, human rights, and freedom. Recognising this commitment is what the Lorenzo Natali Prize has been doing for almost 20 years, defending freedom of expression, democracy, human rights and development as a way of promoting good governance, peace and improving living conditions in the poorest countries.

For the organisation of the Lorenzo Natali Prize, the European Commission has once again worked with two of the most prestigious world press associations such as Reporters Without Borders, winner of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2005 and World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN IFRA), which represents over 18,000 publications in all five continents.