The award was given to Sevgil Musaieva, editor-in-chief of the Ukrainian news media Ukrainska Pravda, Nataliya Humeniuk, a war reporter and co-founder of the Ukrainian digital news channel Hromadske, and Olha Rudenko, editor-in-chief and co-founder of Kyiv Independent.
According to the statement published on the Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Award website, Musaieva, Humeniuk, and Rudenko represent all those who do professional work in challenging and dangerous conditions.
“The particular challenge of their journalistic work is to be war correspondents in her own country. It is their homeland that is being destroyed, their homes where they endure nights of bombing, it is their relatives, friends, and colleagues who are fighting and dying at the front. Nevertheless, to work independently and professionally and to research reliably is an outstanding achievement that we would like to recognize,” according to the statement published on the Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Award website.
The award organizers noted that Musaieva, Humeniuk, and Rudenko represent the Ukrainian generation that has long been fighting for freedom of speech, democracy, and transparency.
“It is this generation that the Kremlin is particularly afraid of and wants to destroy,” according to the statement published on the Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Award website.
The Hanns Joachim Friedrichs was first awarded in 1995. The award is named for the German journalist Hanns Joachim Friedrichs, who died the year before the award was established. The award winners are journalists who have achieved exceptional results in their work. The jury consists of the founders and previous Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Award winners.
Related: