The press prizes will be presented to six journalists and media in Eastern and Central Europe in recognition of their seminal investigative journalism and personal courage during a period of great turmoil throughout the region. Several of this year’s prize laureates are currently imprisoned as a result of their journalistic activities.

Here is the list of this year’s prize laureates:

Journalist Nastasia Arabuli from Georgia
Journalism collective Bihus.Info from Ukraine
Journalist and editor Szabolcs Panyi from Hungary
News platform Abzas Media from Azerbaijan
Freelance journalist Larysa Shchyrakova from Belarus
Journalist and editor Mikhail Afanasiev from Russia

“Independent media are currently going through really hard times in Georgia. The already fragile situation has worsened significantly following the adoption of the ‘Law on Foreign Agents’, also known as the ‘Russian Law’. As elsewhere, this legislation targets civil society in general and the media in particular, stigmatizing and sanctioning the few media outlets that remain outside government control. If all dissenting voices and the media that broadcast them are eliminated, the destruction of Georgian democracy will be complete,” remarks Nastasia Arabuli from Georgia.

“I was born in the twilight of Communism, when Central European regimes were still Moscow’s vassals, spying on citizens, twisting journalism into propaganda, and silencing dissent. I was lucky to become a journalist after that dark era had faded. But those shadows are creeping back, and it’s our duty to shine a light on them before they take hold again,” comments Szabolcs Panyi from Hungary.

“Today Ukrainian journalists face so many challenges during the war. Our cities are constantly being shelled and we frequently experience power outages. Despite everything, Bihus.Info have kept exposing corruption for eleven years straight. We can investigate, because Ukraine is a democratic country. Even during war, many registers and data are open. You can hear a lot about corruption in Ukraine because we Ukrainians are not indifferent and try to fight corruption. All of this is challenging, but we couldn’t do it if it weren’t for the Ukrainian army and Ukrainian servicemen”, says Nataliia Lazarovych, journalist at Bihus.Info from Ukraine.

The Free Media Award press prizes are earmarked for journalists and media in Eastern and Central Europe and are awarded under the auspices of a joint project between the Fritt Ord Foundation in Norway and the Zeit Stiftung Bucerius in Germany.

The awards ceremony will be held at the Norwegian Nobel Institute on Tuesday, 17 September 2024.

Background of the recipients of Free Media Awards 2024, and grounds for the decisions:

Nastasia Arabuli (Georgia)

Georgian journalist Nastasia Arabuli will receive the Free Media Award for her fearless independent journalism. She has effectively challenged the power structures in her home country by exposing the consequences of power on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Tbilisi service. Nastasia Arabuli recently helped conducting a major investigation into the sexual abuse of several young women in the Georgian Orthodox Church, and is considered one of the most vocal defenders of LGBTQ+ rights in Georgia. In connection with the introduction of the “Foreign Agents Law” and the protests against it in the spring of 2024, she extensively reported on injustices committed by the authorities. Arabuli is currently conducting an important series of in-depth interviews with political leaders, activists and civil society representatives in the run-up to the upcoming parliamentary elections in Georgia, scheduled for October 26, 2024. In recent years, Nastasia Arabuli has documented the systematic persecution of independent voices in Georgia’s cultural institutions, drawing attention to the authorities’ strategies of control through propaganda and discrediting campaigns. In the aftermath of Russia’s massive invasion of Ukraine, Nastasia Arabuli used big data to uncover various attempts to circumvent economic sanctions and trade restrictions in Georgia, and wrote about a suspicious increase in microchip exports from the U.S. to Georgia parallel to the war in Ukraine. Nastasia Arabuli herself was among the journalists who bore the brunt of attacks by politicians and government propaganda.

Bihus.Info (Ukraine)

The journalism collective Bihus.Info in Ukraine will receive a Free Media Award for its in-depth, creative anti-corruption investigations and meticulous documentation of war crimes, not least from the front line. Founded by the investigative journalist Denys Bihus in 2013, Bihus.Info has become a cornerstone of independent journalism in Ukraine. Its programmes are published on the Bihus.Info website and the YouTube channel of the same name. The editorial board currently consists of journalists and analysts who wield significant influence on the political landscape in Ukraine and internationally. Their reporting has brought tangible results such as legal actions against corrupt civil servants, political changes, and heightened awareness of systematic challenges facing the country. In 2023, Bihus.Info was behind a series of investigations that exposed the fact that high-value government contracts were being awarded to companies with ties to public servants. The funding was actually earmarked for the reconstruction of buildings that had been destroyed by Russian shelling. In spring 2024, for example, Bihus.Info turned its attention to Russian torture chambers in Kherson while they were under Russian occupation. This past January, Bihus.Info was attacked by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), which sought to discredit the journalists and their work. In response to the incident, Bihus.Info instigated its own investigation of the attack, which proved to be illegal, and went on to expose internal corruption in the SBU.

Szabolcs Panyi (Hungary)

Journalist and editor Szabolcs Panyi from Hungary will receive a Free Media Award for his unique, untiring investigative journalism. Szabolcs Panyi is a journalist at Direkt36, a newsroom based in Budapest that investigates sensitive stories that the authorities would prefer to bury. He is also editor for Central European investigations carried out by VSquare.org, a cross-border investigative platform based in Warsaw which brings together independent journalists from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. Panyi covers corruption, national security, foreign policy, and Russian and Chinese influence in Central and Eastern Europe. At VSquare.org this year, he has drawn attention to Russian and Hungarian meddling in Slovak politics, a story published prior to the Slovak presidential election. Last year, VSquare.org conducted a collaborative investigation entitled ‘Espiomats’ about Russian diplomats and diplomatic services involved in espionage in Europe. In 2022, Szabolcs Panyi was responsible for a report in Direkt36 on Russian intelligence services infiltrating the IT networks of the Hungarian foreign ministry, after the government had tried to keep the ongoing Russian hacker attacks in secret. The scandal returned to centre stage once again a few months ago when additional new evidence confirmed Panyi’s reports. The Hungarian government accused Szabolcs Panyi of lying, but he is used to attacks on his character by government-controlled media. In 2021, Szabolcs Panyi reported on abusive cybersurveillance with the Pegasus spyware in a series of articles for Direkt36 as a member of the international ‘Pegasus Project’ investigative team, a consortium of 17 media outlets. He himself has been a target of the Hungarian government’s surveillance campaign against journalists.

Abzas Media (Azerbaijan)

The independent Azerbaijani news platform Abzas Media will receive a Free Media Award for its decisive, systematic investigative journalism. Founded by a group of young activists and journalists in 2016, Abzas Media quickly gained a large audience on social media. These days, the media outlet is especially well-known for its reporting on state corruption. For example, the journalists have turned a spotlight on state procurements in connection with the reconstruction of destroyed villages and cities in Karabakh. Abzas Media exposes frequent breaches of human rights in Azerbaijan, while consistently remaining true to journalistic principles when reporting on court cases, the struggles of marginalised groups, and the political opposition. In autumn 2023, the Azerbaijani authorities cracked down by arresting six key journalists and editors from Abzas Media. They were allegedly charged with ‘smuggling’ and ‘conspiracy to bring money into the country illegally’. In August, seven more charges were brought against the incarcerated team members, who now face up to 12 years’ imprisonment. Several of Abzas Media’s partners were also subjected to restrictive measures, and some of those involved in investigations were denied permission to leave the country. In November 2023, 15 recognised media institutions joined the Forbidden Stories Consortium, where they are continuing to pursue investigations started by Abzas Media. In February 2024, the imprisoned editorial team appointed Azerbaijani investigative journalist Leyla Mustafayeva as interim editor-in-chief of Abzas Media. Following that decision, a new investigative team consisting of exile-based journalists and Abzas Media announced that the platform will continue its activities from outside Azerbaijan.

Larysa Shchyrakova (Belarus)

Freelance journalist Larysa Shchyrakova will receive a Free Media Award for her valiant and independent activities in Belarus. She is currently being held as a political prisoner. Despite the threat of arrest earlier, she continued working as a journalist. In autumn 2023, she was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison in Belarus on a trumped up charge. It was alleged that she had discredited Belarus and facilitated extremism, ostensibly by spreading disinformation online. As a freelance journalist, Larysa Shchyrakova turned the spotlight on the forgotten victims of Stalin’s oppression. She made the documentary ‘The Murdered and Forgotten’, in which she documented the stories told by the relatives of oppressed dissidents. Larysa Shchyrakova has been a mainstay for freelance journalists in the Homiel region, and she has worked tenaciously at the international level to try to make it legal to work as a freelance journalist in Belarus. She herself was the first freelance journalist in Belarus to be fined for allegedly “working for foreign media”. Larysa Shchyrakova courageously covered how Belarus dealt with the pandemic and the protests in its wake.

Mikhail Afanasiev (Russia)

Journalist, editor and publisher Mikhail Afanasiev will receive a Free Media Award for his uncompromising, fearless reporting from Sibiria in Russia. Since founding the online magasine Novy Fokus two decades ago, he has distinguished himself in the field of investigative journalism in a region characterised by rampant corruption. In autumn 2023, Mikhail Afanasiev was sentenced to 5.5 years’ imprisonment by a Russian court for allegedly having used his position to disseminate false information about the Russian Army. What Afanasiev actually did was to publish a report on members of the Russian National Guard from his hometown of Khakassia, who refused to fight in Ukraine. Further, he has been banned from practicing his profession for 2.5 years after completing his prison sentence. Afanasiev is the first journalist in Russia to be sentenced under the ruthless and hastily adopted amendment to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The amendment was introduced abruptly in March 2022, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. His lawyers have brought the case before the European Court of Human Rights. Novy Fokus is currently shut down in response to a request of Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media due to ‘numerous breaches’. With Novy Fokus, Mikhail Afanasiev has focused on uncovering illegal activities among criminal gangs, and exposed abuses of power and the authorities’ failure to act. Afanasiev has been the recipient of death threats for his work as a reporter covering corruption and breaches of human rights.

About the jury:

All the candidates were nominated by international institutions and organisations that are active in Eastern and Central Europe, or by experts on the region. An international jury has chosen the prize laureates. The jury for the Free Media Awards consists of Alice Bota, reporter for Eastern Europe with Die ZEIT, Attila Mong, Berlin-based Europe representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Inna Sangadzhieva, Director of Europe and Central Asia Department at the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Juri Durkot, Ukrainian journalist and translator (Durkot abstained from the jury‘s deliberations and voting on the Russian award winner), Martin Paulsen, head of the Foreign Languages Department at the University of Bergen, and Silvia Stöber, reporter and editor for ARD Tagesschau.