Vakhtang Kipiani won first Gongadze award

The first recipient of the Georgy Gongadze Award is the journalist Vakhtang Kipiani. The awarding ceremony took place on May 21st in Kyiv, as Ukrainian branch of Pen international, one of founders of this award, reported. Vakhtang Kipiani was chosen from the shortlist of three journalists, whom the jury selected among 21 candidates. This year, the Ukrainian PEN Club launched the Georgiy Gongadze award for innovation in journalism. The jury composed of nine persons, among whom there are the Ukrainian PEN Centre officials, media experts and specialists from various spheres of the press freedom. The winner is to receive $ 3000. Among the criteria for evaluation of the candidates are professionalism, competence, commitment to the principles and values of independent journalism, a significant contribution to the evolution of some particular genre or to journalism in general, as well as production of journalistic stories which translated into understanding or solving of some problems in society. Vakhtang Kipiani is a journalist and historian, lecturer, editor-in-chief of the online edition of "Historical Truth" and author of the program of the same name on the ZIK TV channel, the founder of the 2015 Museum of Archive of the Press. He is the laureate of several journalistic awards and prizes, in particular Teletriumph, the Oleksander Krivenko Prize “For Progress in Journalism”, and the Merited Journalist of Ukraine.