Free Media Awards awarded - Aziz Karimov among the laureates

Baku/03.11.21/Turan: The Free Media Awards ceremony for the German-Norwegian Independent Journalism Award in Eastern Europe was held in Hamburg on November 1, DW reports.

The awards from the Hamburg Zeit-Stiftung and the Norwegian Stiftelsen Fritt Ord were presented two years in advance, as it was decided to postpone the ceremony last year due to the pandemic.

Belarusian journalists and media were awarded the Free Media Awards for 2021 - Tut.by reporter Katerina Borisevich, Tut.by itself recognized as extremist in Belarus, the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), journalists of the Belsat TV channel Katerina Andreeva and Daria Chultsova sentenced to prison and also the journalist of "Nasha Niva" Natalia Lubnevskaya.

“This year, the winners of the Free Media Awards provided us with some of the best and most daring reports from Belarus. Moreover, the imprisonment of some of the laureates of the award demonstrates the consequences that the citizens of Belarus face in defending the rights of society, freedom and democracy,” said the chairman Board of the Zeit Foundation Michael Göring.

In 2020, the Free Media Awards were awarded to the Russian publications Mediazona and Project, the Ukrainian TV program Schemes, as well as Aziz Karimov, an Azerbaijani photojournalist from the Turan agency, and Stanislav Aseev, a Ukrainian journalist. The award recognizes courageous journalists and media outlets who fearlessly expose corruption and abuse of power without being intimidated by the authorities, said Michael Göring.

In 2021, Mediazona and Proekt were recognized as "foreign agents" by the Russian authorities. –0—