This initiative is inspired by Ion Rațiu, who – upon returning to Romania in 1990 after 50 years of exile – fought for press freedom. The founding of the Cotidianul newspaper was one of his first achievements in strengthening democracy in Romania.
THE ION RAȚIU JOURNALISM AWARD
The Ion Rațiu Journalism Award was established in 2015, inspired by Ion Ratiu’s dedication to press freedom upon his return to Romania after 50 years in exile. The award promotes and encourages investigative journalism by recognizing significant achievements of Romanian journalists.
Since 2024, the award has been granted in partnership with the Superscrieri Awards (Friends for Friends Foundation) and is now called the Superscrieri Ion Rațiu Scholarship for Investigative Journalism. The nominations of investigative journalists are made by the Center for Independent Journalism, Active Watch, and by representatives of Romanian journalism faculties and departments.
Florin Râșteiu is an investigative journalist at Buletin de București, where he has worked since 2020. His reporting focuses on corruption, public spending, local government, and political influence, with a particular emphasis on uncovering how public resources are managed in Bucharest and the surrounding Ilfov County. Through meticulous document analysis, data-driven reporting, and months-long investigations, he has built a reputation for exposing abuses of power and bringing complex public-interest stories to light. In 2025, he investigated the political and financial networks behind Bucharest’s Open Streets programme, showing how a public cultural initiative became a source of lucrative contracts for companies with close political ties. His investigation Circuitul Negoiță exposed an elaborate scheme through which public money was spent on a major boulevard project outside the oversight of elected local councillors, using a network of politically controlled companies. In Băluță’s Free Swimming Pool (Gratuitatea lui Băluță), he exposed how a public swimming pool promised as a free resource for students became a profitable concession benefiting politically connected interests. In 2024, The “Poor People’s Clan” (Clanul “Sărmanilor”), co-authored with Cătălin Doscaș, revealed how social housing in Otopeni intended for vulnerable residents had instead been allocated to people connected to the local administration. Chitila’s Secret Business Deals (Afacerile Secrete din Chitila) uncovered hidden business interests and potential conflicts of interest involving the mayor of Chitila.
Măriuța Nistor belongs to a generation of journalists who entered the profession with a clear purpose: to verify the facts and bring them to light, even when doing so is uncomfortable. She joined the investigative team at Ziarul de Gardă in June 2023 while still studying journalism. Since then, Măriuța has reported on corruption, justice, and politics in the Republic of Moldova. After just one year at Ziarul de Gardă, Măriuța, together with her colleague Natalia Zaharescu, conducted a groundbreaking undercover investigation exposing how fugitive oligarch Ilan Șor, operating from Moscow, orchestrated a vote-buying network to influence Moldova’s 2024 presidential elections and referendum on European integration. Working undercover with hidden cameras and false identities, the journalists infiltrated the network and documented its activities from the inside, providing compelling evidence of foreign interference in Moldova’s democratic process. Serving Moscow received widespread recognition, winning the 2025 European Press Prize for Investigative Reporting and several national journalism awards. European Press Prize jury: “A mind-blowing undercover investigation showing how Russian money and networks of influence operated in Moldova — paying off people in cash to show up at rallies and vote against pro-EU candidate Maia Sandu.”
Bianca Albu has been a journalist since 2019 and is currently a journalist at Public Record. Throughout her career, she has written about corruption, public procurement and disinformation, conducting investigations that have had a significant impact. In 2024, she won the Superscrieri Awards, Reader’s Choice Award (Superscrierea Cititorilor) and Investigation of the Year for the “Horror Asylums” series, conducted together with Ovidiu Vanghele. The investigation uncovered serious systemic issues in the care center network, leading to the resignation of two ministers and sparking discussions about changes in social welfare legislation. Bianca has published other impactful materials on the social protection system, a topic that had been almost nonexistent from the perspective she chose to explore. Before joining Public Record, she worked at Buletin de București and RISE Project.