The winner of the main prize was selected by an independent jury. The jury is made up of leading figures from the same sector. In 2026, the jury comprised Alexandra Stark, Amit Juillard and Kaspar Surber.
The jury justified its choice of winner as follows:
Hans Stutz’s life’s work demonstrates how historical research, journalistic rigour and a commitment to democracy come together. Stutz has devoted himself to topics that are often reluctantly discussed in public: far-right organisations and structures, racist incidents and anti-democratic ideologies. In Hans Stutz, the jury honours a journalist who has pursued uncomfortable topics for decades, even in the face of personal threats and professional setbacks, and who sees his work as a defence of democracy and human rights.
The journalist Hans Stutz (*1952), who grew up in the Seetal region of Lucerne, has for decades been one of Switzerland’s most prominent investigative journalists in the right-wing extremism and racism sector. After completing his university education and working as a secondary school teacher, he moved into freelance journalism. He pursued this career path throughout his life. He held a permanent part-time post as editor-in-chief of what was then the media magazine of the Journalists’ Union. Since the 1980s, Hans Stutz has written as a freelancer for various media outlets. Hans Stutz’s work is based on meticulous documentary research, careful verification of sources and great perseverance. From 1995 to 2014, he continued the chronology of racist incidents founded by Sigi Feigl and maintained by Regula Bähler. He has authored two books: *Frontists and National Socialists in Lucerne 1933–1945* (published in 1997) and *The Murder of Arthur Bloch in Payerne* (2000).
It was the responsibility of the recipient of the main prize to select the winner of the encouragement prize. Hans Stutz chose Anabelle Bourquin (born 1983). The prize winner is a journalist and head of research at the Neuchâtel daily newspaper *ArcInfo*. After studying literature at university, she discovered journalism through radio. From 2007, she worked at the local Neuchâtel radio station RTN, where she was deputy editor-in-chief from 2009 to 2015. Since 2017, she has been part of the editorial team at ‘L’Express’, which became ‘ArcInfo’ in 2018; there, she works in a field of journalism that suits her particularly well: local investigative reporting. This year’s selection of the award winner was based on a recommendation by the jury, taking into account the significance of her investigative work and publications.
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