Epress.am News from Armenia
Azerbaijani Radio Liberty journalist and blogger Khadija Ismailova was recently announced as one of five recipients of the 2012 Gerd Bucerius Prize “Free Press of Eastern Europe” for fighting for freedom of speech and media independence, EastBook.eu reports.
The other recipients of the award from the ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius and Fritt Ord Foundation went to Olga Romanova, a well known investigative journalist from Moscow; Valery Karbalevych, an independent political commentator from Minsk; Khadija Ismailova, an Azerbaijani journalist at Radio Liberty; the Russian quarterly Dosh, specializing in human rights and situation in the Caucasus; and the bilingual weekly Tyzden, commenting on relations of Ukraine, Russia and the EU.
A journalist for more than 15 years, Ismailova had a talk show at the RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani service. Khadija Ismailova was awarded for her articles addressing local problems of corruption, abuse of power and violation of human rights.
The official awards ceremony is to take place on May 23 in Hamburg. Winning publications will receive 40,000 EUR, while individual winners will receive 10,000 EUR each.
Since 2000, the ZEIT Foundation has awarded prizes to newspapers and journalists who strive to promote a free press, free speech and liberal civil societies in the transition states of Eastern Europe. Since 2004, the ZEIT Foundation has awarded press prizes in collaboration with the Freedom of Expression Foundation (Fritt Ord Foundation) in Oslo.