The 2024 Olof Palme Prize goes to the independent investigative journalism group Bellingcat. In an era when the transmission of news and facts threatens to be eroded by an ever-increasing flood of disinformation from various malign actors, including nation states, Bellingcat provides a necessary and welcome scrutiny of these misinformation flows based on what is available from open source materials. In addition, Bellingcat conducts veritable detective work to document the perpetrators of various crimes, be it murder, attempted murder, trafficking, or terrorist acts.
Their tireless work contributes to, in line with the political legacy of Olof Palme, establishing a more solid ground for nation states as well as international organisations to act on the basis of international as well as national law. Moreover, the vast documentation that Bellingcat has mobilised provides an evidentiary foundation for writing the history of a series of crimes against humanity.
On Thuesday the 30th of January (Olof Palme’s birthday), Bellingcat’s founder Eliot Higgins will receive the prize on Södra Teatern in Stockholm at 4 pm. The prize ceremony will also be broadcast live on www.palmefonden.se
Eliot Higgins