Ukrainian journalists won IWMF's Courage in Journalism Award

Anastasia Stanko of Hromadske and Anna Babinets of Slidstvo.info are awarded with the Courage in Journalism Award of the International women’s media foundation (IWMF), as to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Among other winners are the journalists from South Sudan, Lebanon and Nicaragua. “Our winners this year are not only brilliant journalists holding governments to account, they are also fighting to prevent the suppression of a free press,” said the IWMF’s Executive Director Elisa Lees Muñoz. “We are honored to welcome these women into our network and celebrate their bravery and persistence.” As the IWMF noted, Anna Babinets and Anastasiya Stanko worked to “expose government corruption despite enduring threats and physical harm – all consequences of a physical and propaganda war that began in 2013 with the Maidan Revolution. “Both women continue to seek the truth, exhibiting uncommon bravery in their pursuit of press freedom in Ukraine”. As the editor-in-chief and head of investigative journalism at the non-profit organization SLIDSTVO.INFO, Babinets produces stories on big crimes in Ukraine. She is also the editor of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. Stanko is a journalist who reports on the Russian-Ukrainian war, and member of the Ukrainian “Stop Censorship” movement; in 2013, she co-founded the independent media channel Hromadske, and is the deputy editor-in-chief. Babinets was attacked by the government for months in 2016 for her investigation into presidential off-shore companies while Stanko was taken hostage and held captive in 2014 by Russian-backed separatists in Eastern Ukraine.” As to other winners, there are Anna Nimiriano, the only female editor-in-chief in South Sudan, managing the leading daily newspaper (The Juba Monitor); Nicaraguan journalist Lucía Pineda of 100% Noticias who was recently released from prison; and, Liz Sly, the Beirut bureau chief for The Washington Post. Though nearly 130 journalists have been killed in Syria to-date, Sly persists to detail how the war impacts the lives of civilians. As to IWMF, more than 100 groundbreaking journalists in 56 countries have been honoured with its award since 1990.