The European Parliament's second annual prize for excellence in journalism will be awarded on Thursday 15 October at 09.00h in Room JAN 4Q2. It goes to journalists who, in the view of the jury, have done most to enhance public understanding of European issues and debates. There are four prizes, for work in the print media, radio, TV and the internet. The winner in each category will receive €5,000.

The winners will be announced at 09:00h Brussels time by Parliament's President Jerzy Buzek, who will make a short speech. The jury, composed of EP members and prominent journalists, will pick the winners from among over 65 national award winners, who were themselves selected from 266 entries.

The UK nominations for the European Parliament Prize for Journalism have been selected and will now go forward to compete for the four €5,000 prizes against entries from other EU Member States. The UK winners in the internet category were Mark Mardell, for his blog on the BBC website and, in the written press category, Justin Stares, for his piece in Lloyd's List shipping newspaper on the impact of EU laws on the ship-breaking industry across the globe. The UK judging panel did not make any nominations in the TV or radio categories.

The Irish nominees are Stephen Carroll, from RTÉ television, for an innovative TV news piece explaining the Lisbon Treaty to children/teenagers, Jamie Smyth, European Correspondent with the Irish Times, for a series of print articles entitled 'Lisbon Explained', and Teresa O'Malley, from local radio station Midwest Radio, for a report on former European Commissioner Padraig Flynn. 

At 10:00h the speeches of the winners will be followed by a panel discussion on "The role of new media: an opportunity for democratic participation?", to be moderated by EP Vice-President Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou (EPP, EL), with the participation of Dr Silvana Koch-Mehrin (ALDE, DE), Vice-President of the European Parliament, MEP Morten Løkkegaard (ALDE, DK), Letizia Gambini, a member of the European Youth Press network, Yves Desmet, Political Editor of "De Morgen" (Belgium) and Michael Stabenow, Journalist for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Germany).

All national winners have been invited to the ceremony and 40 young journalists taking part in a European Parliament seminar will also attend.