Maldito Dato Nominated at the Sigma Awards, the International Data Journalism Awards, for its work during 2021

The Sigma Awards are described as “a competition to celebrate the best data journalism from around the world”. In this edition, the jury has especially valued projects related to the COVID-19 pandemic, but not exclusively.

Maldito Dato has received the nomination as “best portfolio” for the section’s work during 2021, focused particularly on covering the pandemic and using the transparency law to conduct journalistic investigations.

Among the work of Maldito Dato during 2021 are, among others, the investigation on the occupancy of Spanish hospitals during the pandemic, the list of attendees at the Interterritorial Council of Health, the premature vaccination of 377 non-assistential workers of the Murcian Health Council, or the hiring of retired nurses and doctors by the autonomous communities.

The work of Maldito Dato has been shortlisted among 603 applications from 379 media and organizations representing 76 different countries. The list of nominees includes internationally prestigious works such as the ‘Pandora Papers’ by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), or ‘OpenLux’ by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), as well as projects from media such as The Economist, BBC News, Reuters, La Nación, The Marshall Project o ProPublica.

Among the Spanish media, elDiario.es data team and La Vanguardia data journalist Laura Aragó have also been nominated for the best portfolio. Meanwhile, the Civio Foundation has been nominated for its research into emergency contracts during the pandemic, and Mariano Zafra and Javier Salas from El País for «A living room, a bar, and a classroom: how the coronavirus spreads in the air«. Spanish journalists Adrián Blanco from The Washington Post, and Carmen Aguilar from Sky News, have also been nominated in the best portfolio category.

The winners of the Sigma Awards will be revealed next April. The jury that has chosen the nominees was led by data journalists Simon Rogers, data editor at Google, and Kuek Ser Kuang Keng, data editor at the Pulitzer Center. The jury that will choose the winners will be headed by two other renowned data journalists: Gina Chua, executive editor at Reuters, and Aron Pilhofer, professor of Data Journalism at Temple University in the United States.