Ukrainian journalists received the prestigious “Free Press of Eastern Europe 2020” award

The team of the "Schemes" investigative journalism project and the author of Radio Svoboda Stanislav Asieiev were awarded the German-Norwegian prize "Free Press of Eastern Europe 2020" (Free Media Awards).

This is stated on the Facebook page of "Schemes," Rubryka reports.

The award ceremony took place on November 1 in the German city of Hamburg. Last year, because of a coronavirus infection pandemic, the award ceremony was postponed. Investigative journalists Maksym Savchuk and Oleksandr Chornovalov received the award on behalf of the Schemes team.

The author of Radio Svoboda Stanislav Asieiev also received the Free Media Awards 2020. He is the author of The Bright Path: The Story of a Concentration Camp, in which he tells of the secret Isolation Prison in Donetsk, where prisoners are held and tortured. The book was also published in English under the title "The torture camp on paradise street." Asieiev's collection of essays "Isolation" about life in occupied Donetsk was published in German ("In Isolation").

"It is especially gratifying that I was able to present the members of the jury with the collection 'In Isolation' for which he was awarded in German," the journalist wrote.

Note

The Free Media Awards have existed since 2016. It is jointly awarded by the German Zeit Foundation and the Norwegian Fritt Ord Foundation. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the awarding of the 2020 winners was postponed for a year.

In addition to Ukrainians, this year's award went to Azerbaijani photojournalist Aziz Karimov and Belarusian journalists and media outlets: the extremist publication Tut.by in Belarus, its reporter Kateryna Borysovych, the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), sentenced to a prison term. Chultsova, as well as a journalist of "Nasha Nyva" Natalia Lubnevska.