Head of the Voice of America Eastern Europe Bureau supports political prisoner Larysa Shchyrakova

Renowned Ukrain­ian jour­nal­ist and head of the Voice of Amer­i­ca East­ern Europe Bureau, Myrosla­va Gongadze, con­grat­u­lat­ed our impris­oned col­league, Larysa Shchyrako­va, on receiv­ing the Free Media Awards and record­ed a mes­sage of sup­port for her.

Myrosla­va Gan­gadze’s con­grat­u­la­to­ry let­ter to Larysa Shchyrako­va. Pho­to: Leanid Sudalen­ka

Myrosla­va Gongadze attend­ed the Free Media Awards cer­e­mo­ny, where Larysa Shchyrako­va was one of the lau­re­ates. Shchyrako­va is cur­rent­ly serv­ing a 3.5‑year prison sen­tence. Human rights defend­er Leanid Sudalen­ka accept­ed the award on her behalf. Through him, Myrosla­va Gongadze sent her con­grat­u­la­tions to the Gomel jour­nal­ist.

“I want you to stay strong because I real­ly under­stand how hard it is. I too have expe­ri­enced var­i­ous tragedies in my life, but you are strong, and I am sure that you will win this bat­tle. And we will all win,” Myrosla­va Gongadze said in her mes­sage to Larysa Shchyrako­va.

Watch the address in Ukrainian

Myrosla­va Gongadze is a Ukrain­ian jour­nal­ist and head of the Voice of Amer­i­ca East­ern Europe Bureau. Myroslava’s hus­band, jour­nal­ist Georgiy Gongadze, was kid­napped and mur­dered in 2000. Since then, she has become a promi­nent pub­lic fig­ure advo­cat­ing for press free­dom and jour­nal­ists’ safe­ty in Ukraine. She con­tin­ues to seek jus­tice for her husband’s mur­der.