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  • Belarusian Journalist Wins CEI SEEMO Award for Outstanding Merits in Investigative Journalism 2016

    The Central European Initiative and the South East Europe Media Organisation, in special partnership with the Media Program South East Europe of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, have announced the winners of the “CEI SEEMO Award for Outstanding Merits in Investigative Journalism 2016”: Lindita Çela in the section “Professional Journalists” and Artsiom Harbatsevich in the section “Young Professional Journalists”.

    Art­siom Har­bat­se­vich, a young jour­nal­ist from Min­sk, Belarus, with work­ing expe­ri­ences at Intex-press and Nasha Niva, has been award­ed for his activ­i­ty as inves­tiga­tive reporter pro­duc­ing some works hav­ing great impact and reper­cus­sions in his coun­try. In par­tic­u­lar, in one inves­ti­ga­tion, he exam­ined the pro-Russ­ian para­mil­i­tary groups receiv­ing sup­port from Russ­ian funds, while in anoth­er work he exposed the chan­nel through which Belaru­sian teenagers from a bor­der region were tak­en to mil­i­tary train­ing in Rus­sia.

    Lin­di­ta Çela, an inves­tiga­tive jour­nal­ist at the Balkan Inves­tiga­tive Report­ing Net­work (BIRN) in Alba­nia, has been award­ed for her over­all pro­fes­sion­al achieve­ments and hard-hit­ting inves­ti­ga­tions expos­ing cor­rup­tion scan­dals in the high­est lev­els of pow­er as well as rev­e­la­tions on Albania’s orga­nized crime net­works, stretch­ing from the Accursed Moun­tains to the streets of Brus­sels. For over more than 15 years of expe­ri­ence as a reporter, she has been cov­er­ing com­plex sto­ries with a huge impact in Alban­ian soci­ety, show­ing impres­sive courage and deter­mi­na­tion.

    The award­ing cer­e­mo­ny took place on Novem­ber 21, at the X South East Europe Media Forum in Bel­grade, Ser­bia.

    Spe­cial Men­tion has been assigned to Iurie Săn­duță, direc­tor of RISE Moldo­va and mem­ber of the Orga­nized Crime and Cor­rup­tion Report­ing Project (OCCRP). As a spe­cial­ist in cross-bor­der inves­ti­ga­tions, coor­di­nat­ing the inves­ti­ga­tion depart­ment at Ziarul de Gardă in Chișinău, his work is also well-known in the Roman­ian media, espe­cial­ly in recent years, when he revealed sev­er­al high-lev­el cor­rup­tion schemes, dis­clos­ing the crim­i­nal orga­ni­za­tion and mak­ing con­nec­tions in off­shore areas. He is the co-author of the inves­tiga­tive bor­der projects «A Mur­der­er’s Trail» and «The Russ­ian Laun­dro­mat”.
    35 nom­i­na­tions, cov­er­ing 12 coun­tries, have been sub­mit­ted this year, con­firm­ing the region-wide impact and rel­e­vance of the Award.

    The inde­pen­dent inter­na­tion­al jury, who decides by major­i­ty vot­ing, includ­ed: Alek­san­dra Bog­dani (Alba­nia), edi­tor for Balkan Inves­tiga­tive Report­ing Net­work (BIRN); Saša Leković (Croa­t­ia), inves­tiga­tive jour­nal­ist, train­er and media advi­sor in SEE coun­tries, pres­i­dent of Inves­tiga­tive Jour­nal­ism Cen­ter, pres­i­dent of Croa­t­ian Jour­nal­ists’ Asso­ci­a­tion; Luka Zanoni (Italy), edi­tor-in-chief, Osser­va­to­rio Bal­cani e Cau­ca­so; Mari­na Con­stan­ti­noiu (Roma­nia), jour­nal­ist/ed­i­tor-in-chief, miscareaderezistenta.ro; Anna Babi­nets (Ukraine), edi­tor of the Orga­nized Crime and Cor­rup­tion Report­ing Project (OCCRP) and co-founder of Slidstvo.info.

    The over­all Award coor­di­na­tion was man­aged by Bar­bara Fab­ro (CEI) and Oliv­er Vujovic (SEEMO).
      
    CONTACTS
    Cen­tral Euro­pean Ini­tia­tive: press@cei.int  
    South East Europe Media Organ­i­sa­tion: basis@seemo.org 
    KAS Media Pro­gram South East Europe: media.europe@kas.de 

    For more infor­ma­tion on the South East Europe Media Forum (SEEMF): info@seemf.org
    Fol­low on Twit­ter: @seemf; @seemofreemedia; @KASmediaSEE; @CEI_Secretariat

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