Mission

Sponsors

The Black Sea is a non-profit online multimedia magazine specializing in narrative, in-depth and data journalism, and photo-reportage. It is free from advertisements, and relies on donors, grants and awards. We insist on retaining full editorial independence.

The Black Sea was first supported by a one-off grant from the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation, a trust of the German Marshall Fund. Since then, it is funded by project grants from the likes of JournalismFund.eu and Reporters in The Fields

Awards and nominations

2018

The Black Sea was nominated for the European Press Prize, in the Investigation Category, for its work on Malta Files: 'How the smallest EU country became a haven for global tax avoidance', in collaboration with the EIC Network.

'Malta Files' was a Finalist for the Tom Renner Prize in the Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) Awards (USA).

2017

Petrut Calinescu's photo-story on life on the outskirts of Bucharest, showcased on our website, won First Prize in the Balkan Photo Award for the category of Reportage in Photo Story.

The Black Sea was nominated for The British Journalism Awards for Best Investigation of the Year (Global) for its work on Malta Files. Our work on Football Leaks with the EIC Network was nominated in the same category.

The Black Sea journalists won second prize in the EU Migration Media awards for an expose detailing how Syrian Children working for slave wages on farms in Turkey were picking fruit and vegetables destined for western supermarkets.

The Black Sea published with European Investigative Collaborations (EIC.Network) Mapping the route of the Weapons of Terror in the Paris Bataclan Shootings, nominated for the European Press Prize for Investigative Journalism.

2016

The article 'Dutch Rabobank buys up land stolen from Romanian Farmers' was part of a cross-border investigation awarded as runner-up for the European Press Prize for Investigative Journalism.

2015

The feature 'HIV Epidemic sweeps across east Europe as economic crisis threatens' was the winner of the Award for Best Initiatives of European Online Investigative Journalism, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (European University Institute).

Photographer Petrut Calinescu’s work for the site has also been nominated for the Lens Culture Award.

2014

The Black Sea was nominated for the European Press Prize for ‘Innovation’ in media development.

European Investigative Collaborations (eic.network)

The Black Sea was a founding member of European Investigative Collaborations, known as the EIC network. Today, EIC members include European media outlets, Le Soir (Belgium), Mediapart (France), Der Spiegel (Germany), NRC (Netherlands), Espresso (Italy) and Expresso (Portugal) and others, and have partnered on high-profile investigative journalism projects.

These include:

• Mapping the Weapons of Terror (2016), a three-month investigation detailing how Brussels’ failure to impose comprehensive directives has facilitated the sale of deadly weapons to terrorists.
• Football Leaks (2016) a series of articles from the largest leak in sports history, in a project run by over 60 journalists in 14 countries, and
• The Malta Files (2017) which exposed the smallest EU country as a haven for tax avoidance for wealthy Russians, the Italian mafia and the Turkish elite.
• Billions for Borders (2018) revealing details of the EU's secretive deal with Turkey to keep refugees out of Europe.

The Black Sea regularly collaborates with international media partners on investigations. Our work has been published with the likes of EU Observer, the Guardian, New York Times, Der Spiegel, Tagesspiegel, De Correspondent, L'Espresso, Expresso, Correctiv, IRPI, Business Insider, the Toronto Star, Balkan Insight, as well media in our region, such as Casa Jurnalistului, DoR, Cumhuriyet, and Bianet.