The Central European Initiative (CEI) and the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), in special partnership with the Media Program South East Europe of Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), have announced the winners of the “CEI SEEMO Award for Outstanding Merits in Investigative Journalism 2017”:
Victor Mosneag in the section “Professional Journalists” and Yevheniia Motorevska in the section “Young Professional Journalists”.
Victor Mosneag, an investigative reporter at weekly newspaper Ziarul de Garda in Moldova, has been awarded for his excellent work on reporting corruption, transparency and rule of law issues in Moldova. In his nine years of experience as an investigative reporter, Mosneag has been covering many cases about corrupt highest officials with a big impact on Moldavian society. His series of articles outline corruption in the justice sector showing the incomes and the assets of judges and the huge differences between legal salaries and the de facto properties. After Victor’s publications, the Government has started many investigations against corrupt judges.
Yevheniia Motorevska, a young journalist from the weekly investigative TV programme “Slidstvo.Info” in Ukraine, has been awarded for her successful work in discovering crimes and corruption in the Public Sector and law enforcement system. Ukrainian officials have opened several criminal cases based on information which Yevheniia published in her stories. In one of her investigations, she discovered the process of drugs trafficking in Ukrainian prisons presenting many details and proof about how the system worked and about the officials involved.
Victor Mosneag and Yevheniia Motorevska will officially receive the awards offered by the CEI (4,000 EUR and 1,000 EUR respectively) on the occasion of the South East Europe Media Forum (SEEMF) in Sofia, Bulgaria, on 27-28 November 2017.
A Special Mention has been assigned to Marina Constantinoiu, editor-in-chief of miscareaderezistenta.ro website in Bucharest, Romania. She is a well-known journalist with an extensive experience in implementing huge investigative and research projects. Over the last two years, she has published more than 50 articles based on archives of security services. Constantinoiu and her team have got access to the archives of the ex-communist Secret Services of Romania and East Germany, Securitate and Stasi, and discovered exclusive documents proving killings at the Romanian borders, with victims not only among Romanians, but also foreign citizens, especially Germans from the former GDR.
22 nominations, covering 10 countries, have been submitted this year, confirming the region-wide impact and relevance of the Award.
The independent international jury, who decides by majority voting, included: Lindita Çela (Albania), journalist at the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN); Alina Radu (Moldova), director at Ziarul de Garda daily; Anna Babinets (Ukraine), editor of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP); Matteo Finco, (Italy), freelance journalist, Ossigeno per l’Informazione; Saša Leković (Croatia), president of Investigative Journalism Center, president of Croatian Journalists’ Association. The overall Award coordination was managed by Barbara Fabro (CEI) and Oliver Vujovic (SEEMO).
CONTACTS
Central European Initiative (CEI): press@cei.int // www.cei.int
South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO): basis@seemo.org // www.seemo.org
KAS Media Program South East Europe: media.europe@kas.de // www.kas.de/medien-europa/en
For more information on the South East Europe Media Forum: info@seemf.org
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