– It is better to speak than to remain silent.

That’s what journalist Nastasia Arabuli from Georgia said when receiving the Free Media Awards in Oslo on Tuesday, along with five other winners from various countries.

– Our job as journalists is often like writing the first draft of history. Often, we listen to people no one else listens to. It is better to speak than to remain silent, and better to keep fighting for freedom than to surrender.

She warned about developments in her home country, where, among other things, a “this so-called Russian law
on foreign agents” is already in force and strongly impacts Georgian press freedom.

– When I took my first steps in the profession ten years ago, Georgia was ranked 84th out of 108 countries on the press freedom index. Today, we are country 103. For a journalist, this means difficult access to information, being a target of illegal surveillance, attacks from authorities, disinformation campaigns, baseless accusations, defamatory labels, or sometimes physical attacks, said Arabuli.

Here you can watch the entire ceremony

Creating journalism under difficult conditions

All the media outlets that received the Free Media Awards 2024 are fighting uphill battles. In their acceptance speeches, all described extremely tough working conditions. For instance, Mikhail Afanasiev and Larysa Shchyrakova are imprisoned for their work and were represented on the podium by others who had to speak on their behalf.
– Mikhail’s work in uncovering the truth in Siberia and standing up against propaganda has been courageous and groundbreaking. His dedication to journalism has made him a political prisoner, said Galina Arapova, a lawyer from Mass Media Defence, on behalf of Afanasiev.
He dedicated the award to his children, she said, and to all those who fight for universal human rights.

Editor Leyla Mustafayeva of Abzas Media in Azerbaijan noted that her country has 300 political prisoners.
– I see that we here in the hall have much in common in our fight against authoritarian leaders and dictatorships.

Exposing corruption in Ukrainian intelligence

This year’s prizewinners from Ukraine face both pressure on press freedom and the pressures of war.
– It’s hard to fully grasp that we are in safety in this city, said journalists Nataliia Lazarovych and Anastasiia Borema from Ukraine. Their journalist collective was awarded for investigative journalism on corruption in Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), despite smear campaigns they have faced. And despite the country being at war with Russia.
– We are proud that, even during war, we can continue to dig deep. But our fight for freedom is only possible thanks to the Ukrainian defense forces, and we are grateful for their efforts, the two said.

Hungary in negative development

For the first time, a media outlet from Hungary also received a Free Media Award.
– I was both surprised and very happy when I learned I was awarded the prize because it is highly esteemed and given to the bravest journalists.

At the same time, I was shocked because I thought it only went to media in countries outside the EU. The fact that I am receiving it today is therefore also a bad sign, said Szabolcs Panyi from Hungary.

He has previously warned that the shadows of communism are slowly creeping back, to the time when “regimes spied on citizens and twisted journalism into propaganda.”

The end of truths

– With the Free Media Awards, we celebrate outstanding journalists, said documentary filmmaker Tonje Hessen Schei, who gave the keynote speech to the prize winners.

– You take enormous personal risks and document abuses and war crimes, some of you in the middle of war. You give a voice to the voiceless.

She pointed to discouraging numbers from UNESCO that show 85 percent of the world’s population now live in countries where press freedom has decreased in the last five years.

– As a political documentary filmmaker, I have witnessed a dark shift in how independent journalists are targeted over the past two decades, since the Iraq war. When my team and I researched the CIA’s secret drone warfare in Waziristan from 2011 to 2015, the journalists I worked with faced a new type of surveillance. A young photojournalist on the team was killed in a drone strike. We had to encrypt, our phones were placed in the freezer, and meetings were moved outdoors. We went back to writing on paper and burning our notes.

With the revolution in artificial intelligence, everything changed, and now total AI surveillance systems are being driven and strengthened by what Shoshana Zuboff calls surveillance capitalism.

– We risk standing at the “end of truth.” Journalists are called “enemies of the people,” facts become alternative, and our stories become “fake news,” said Schei.

– Today, the public sphere is polluted with disinformation, algorithms keep us in echo chambers, deepening our divides with conspiracy theories, and relentless propaganda is liked and shared. On top of this, deepfakes change almost everything. A vibrant, free press is therefore indispensable.

– Threatening, attacking, kidnapping, and murdering journalists has long been a common war tactic in Russia, but now we sadly see an imitation of these brutal Russian methods across Eastern Europe.

In the gallery below photo 3, 9 and the last photo taken by Henrik Pryser Libell. All other photos in the gallery and in this article were taken by Linda Bournane Engelberth.