The Guardian international correspondent Lorenzo Tondo has been awarded the Premiolino, one of Italy’s oldest and most prestigious journalism prizes, for his reporting on the war in Ukraine and the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Tondo, 42, who joined the news organisation in 2016 and covers Ukraine, the Middle East and the migration crisis around the Mediterranean, is the first Italian journalist working for a foreign publication to win the award, known as the “Italian Pulitzer”.
The jury named Tondo best Italian journalist for a national daily newspaper, citing his “exceptional work” in following the war in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion, and the Israel-Gaza conflict since February.
Created in 1960, Il Premiolino rewards six journalists in print, radio, television and new media who have “distinguished themselves for their professional commitment and for having defended freedom of the press and of opinion through their work”.
Previous winners include Alberto Moravia, Oriana Fallaci and the anti-mafia writer Roberto Saviano. The jury said Tondo’s award “solidifies his place among the country’s most distinguished professionals in the field”.
This year’s other winners were Stefania Battistini of the public broadcaster RAI’s Tg1 news, Annalisa Camilli of the news weekly Internazionale, Mariano Giustino of Radio Radicale, Gaia Piccardi of Il Corriere della Sera and Daniele Raineri of La Repubblica.
Tondo, based in Palermo, Sicily, was on the staff of the daily La Repubblica from 2010-15 and has worked with the New York Times and Time magazine. He has also won Italy’s Giuseppe Fava young journalism award.
He is the author of several books including Il Generale, about a young Eritrean refugee mistakenly identified as a human trafficker, Understanding the Balkan Route and, with the photographer Alessio Mamo, Diario ucraino (Ukrainian Journal).
Tondo said he “struggled to believe” he had won the award. “I am honoured and still incredulous. However, these kinds of achievements are not reached alone. This award is the result of an incredible team effort,” he said on Wednesday.
He thanked his editors at the Guardian and said the war in Ukraine had “affected the lives of millions of people, including those of us journalists called to report its horrors – though we have the privilege of narrating this war as witnesses, and not as victims”.
For that reason, he wanted to “dedicate this award to all the civilians who every day, from Gaza to Kharkiv, constantly live through the nightmares of war”.
Marco Tronchetti Provera of Pirelli, which sponsors the awards, said they “elevate the very best expressions of print, radio, television, and web journalism”, reflecting the importance of “quality of information, knowledge, and therefore civil coexistence”.