The winners of the Free Media Awards – Supporting Independent Journalism in Eastern Europe for 2022 are media and journalists from Ukraine. It is photographers Mstislav Chernov and Yevgeny Maloletka, journalist Natalya Gumenyuk, online publication Zaborona, war correspondent Andrey Dubchak and journalist Vladislav Esipenko, announced on Friday, August 19, the German Zeit Foundation and the Norwegian Fritt Foundation Ord, who have jointly awarded the award since 2009.
Mstislav Chernov and Evgeny Maloletka document the war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine from Mariupol. As the international jury pointed out, her photographs, which portrayed the attack on the Mariupol maternity hospital, were used by almost every news agency.
Journalist and writer Natalia Gumenyuk was known for her sharp reporting of Kharkov, Bucha and Nikolaev, which was published in publications such as the German newspaper Die Zeit, the American magazine The Atlantic, the British newspaper The Guardian, the American newspaper The Washington Post, and several others. .
Investigative journalism and reporting from war zones
The online publication Zaborona received the Free Media Awards for its journalistic investigations, including those on right-wing extremist political movements in Ukraine, Russia and other post-Soviet countries. War correspondent Andrei Dubchak receives an award for his photographic and video coverage of war zones. Journalist Vladislav Esipenko has been imprisoned on the Crimean peninsula, annexed to Russia, since last year. There are reports that he was tortured with electric shocks and forced to make a false confession on Russian television.
Special mention deserves the so-called fixers – coordinators among local journalists who have many connections, good knowledge of foreign languages and organizational skills. They help foreign correspondents to seek information, make contacts, do translations for them and guide them on the ground. Without his photographs and articles by Mariupol, Bucha or Nikolaev, many foreign media would not be able to cover the war, said Manuel J. Hartung, chairman of the board of the German Zeit Foundation.
The award ceremony will take place on 17 October at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo.
Source: DW
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