Free Media Awards 2018 - Conference in Yerevan

October 2 2018

The 2018 Free Media Awards will be bestowed at the Free Media Awards conference in Yerevan, Armenia under the auspices of Fritt Ord and ZEIT-Stiftung, on Tuesday 2 October 2018.

The awards go to:

  • Chai Khana in South-Caucasus for their efforts to bring attention to under-reported news stories spanning national borders in the region
  • Fontanka in Russia for their coverage of ongoing and forgotten conflicts
  • The Belarusian website Belarus Partisan for their tireless investigative work, also following the murder of their editor-in-chief in 2016.

Read more about the laureates here.

The conference is free and open to the public.

Venue: The Opera Suite Hotel, Mozart Hall
Address: 1 Baghramyan Street 1, 3, 0019 Yerevan, Armenia

PROGRAMME


9.15 – 9.30: Welcome

Dr. Knut Olav Åmås, Executive Director, The Fritt Ord Foundation

Prof. Dr. Michael Göring, Chairman of the Board of Directors, ZEIT-Stiftung

Panel I: 9.30 – 10.45: Media entrepreneurship and failure as opportunity

Free Media Awards 2018: Chai Khana

Panel participants:

Caroline Sutcliffe, founder and director of Chai Khana, Tbilisi, Georgia –South Caucasus

Jura Manvelyan, editor of Epress.am, Yerevan (Epress.am received the award in 2014). A view from Armenia.

Monica Ellena, editor of Chai Khana, Tbilisi, Georgia – South Caucasus

Moderator: Silvia Stöber, freelance journalist specialized for more than ten years on development in Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia for the German public broadcaster ARD and other media, and a jurymember for the Free Media Awards.

Panel II: 10.55 – 12.10: 20 years of media crackdown

Free Media Awards 2018: Belarus Partisan

Panel participants

Svetlana Kalinkina, editor, Belarusian Partisan, Minsk, Belarus

Zaruhi Mejlumyan, former journalist and head of the information block in the State Supervision Service, Jerevan, Armenia (she received the award in 2017). A view from Armenia.

Juri Durkot, journalist and translator, Lviv, Ukraine, and a jury member for the Free Media Awards. A view from Ukraine.

Moderator: Martin Paulsen, Eastern Europe expert with a PhD in Russian language from the University of Bergen, and a jury member for the Free Media Awards.

12.15: Lunch at the hotel

Panel III: 14.00 – 15.15: Rules for successful independent media in modern Russia

The Free Media Awards 2018: Fontanka

Panel participants:

Alexsander Gorshkov, editor-in-chief of Fontanka.ru, St. Petersburg, Russia

Marianna Grigoryan, director and editor-in-chief of MediaLab Newsroom-Laboratory, Jerevan, Armenia (she received the award in 2009). A view from Armenia.

Guri Norstrøm, Europe correspondent for NRK (The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation), Berlin, Germany, and a jury member for the Free Media Awards. A view from Germany/Norway/Central Europe.

Moderator: Alice Bota, Moscow correspondent for the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT, and a jury member for the Free Media Awards.

News

The Fritt Ord Foundation Prize for 2025 goes to satirical artists May Linn Clement, Marvin Halleraker and Morten Mørland

April 29 2025

The Fritt Ord Foundation Prize for 2025 is awarded to three representatives of Norwegian satirical art for challenging public opinion by standing up to power and for their biting humour: May Linn Clement, Marvin Halleraker and Morten Mørland.

In times of darkness, satire assumes a more important role

May 20 2025

“In times of darkness, when more is at stake, satire has a more important role to play,” said Marvin Halleraker as he accepted the Fritt Ord Prize for 2025, together with May Linn Clemet and Morten Mørland.

Fritt Ord's grants for master’s degrees

May 11 2025

Is your master’s project about freedom of expression, social debate or journalism? If so, you can apply for a student grant from the Fritt Ord Foundation.

Call for nominations: Free Media Awards 2025

March 14 2025

In collaboration with the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS of Hamburg, the Fritt Ord Foundation has allocated the Free Media Awards annually since 2004 to Eastern European journalists and media that defy every obstacle to tirelessly ensure independent press coverage. Russia’s war against Ukraine and the subsequent wave of disinformation clearly demonstrates the need for independent reporting in the region. Journalist, editorial teams and media companies in and from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Russia, Ukraine and Hungary who make a contribution to press freedom through their investigative, independent reporting can be nominated for the Free Media Awards.