1. The European Parliament Prize for Journalism shall be awarded to journalists who have made an outstanding contribution to the clarification of major issues at European level or have promoted a better understanding of the institutions or policies of the European Union. The European Parliament recognises the media's role in holding EU institutions and their work to account. The Prize will therefore be awarded in the spirit of respect for the freedom and full independence of media and of media pluralism and in the context of the European Parliament's desire to improve communication between the EU institutions and European citizens.

2. The European Parliament Prize for Journalism shall be awarded for the fourth time in October 2011.

1. The European Parliament Prize for Journalism shall honour work in four categories: written press, radio, television and internet.

2. There shall be one prize winner in each category.

1. A distinction shall be made between the criteria applicable to contributions and those applicable to their authors.

a. The contributions eligible for the award of the European Parliament Prize for Journalism shall:

b. Authors may be individuals or teams of up to 5 people at most. The individuals or members of the team must be nationals or residents of a European Union Member State and registered journalists.

1. The European Parliament shall post a call for applications on the internet site of its information office in each European Union Member State  and, if necessary, advertise it.

2. The call for applications for the 2011 edition of the European Parliament Prize for Journalism shall be deemed open on 15 January 2011, and shall be closed on 31 March 2011.

3. The application form will be available on the internet sites of the above mentioned European Parliament information offices. It must be duly completed either by the applicants themselves, in their own names, or on behalf of the teams of which they are members, or by an authority representing the media outlet that employs them, or by a member of the general public recommending a published article or broadcast programme. However, the prize is not awarded to a media outlet but solely to a person or team.

4. Only one entry per applicant or per team shall be admitted, but a single media outlet may submit several entries.

5. There shall be no entry fee, provided the requirements set out in Rule 5 are met.

1. The entry, which should be attached to the form mentioned under Rule 4, must in all cases be presented as follows:

a. For written entries, published on paper or the internet:

b. For recorded radio or audiovisual entries, including those published on the internet:

2. All entries must be submitted through the internet site of the Prize or sent by electronic mail, or registered mail, or hand-delivered with acknowledgement of receipt to the address of the European Parliament information office  in the country of residence of the applicant or of their representative.

The deadlines for the 2011 edition of the European Parliament Prize for Journalism are as follows:

1. European Parliament Prize for Journalism prize winners shall be selected by a sole and single award jury, separate from the shortlist juries, formed under the aegis of the European Parliament information offices, to shortlist entries.

2. The award jury:

a. shall be made up of nine members, comprising three Members of the European Parliament and six representatives of the journalism profession, preferably including representatives of European associations of journalists. The award jury shall be chaired by the European Parliament Vice-President in charge of information and communication policy. The secretariat shall be provided by the European Parliament's Directorate-General for Communication;

b. shall select prize winners from the shortlist drawn up by the shortlist juries. The vote shall be secret. Prize winners shall be selected by an absolute majority vote in the first two rounds, then by a simple majority in the following rounds.

3. The shortlist juries:

a. shall be formed in each European Union Member State under the aegis of the competent European Parliament information office;

b. shall be made up of three to five members of the journalism profession, preferably including representatives of national associations of journalists. The secretariat shall be provided by the European Parliament information office in each Member State;

c. shall select a single entry for each of the categories listed under Rule 2;

d. the selection procedure shall be the same as the one set out in paragraph 2, point b, of the present Rule;

4. the award jury and shortlist juries shall have competence for the four categories listed under Rule 2.

1. The European Parliament Prize for Journalism Prize is € 20,000, broken down as follows:

Participation in the European Parliament Prize for Journalism entails complying with these rules. These rules are drafted in the official languages of the European Union.