Updates

Back to News

The 2015 Gerd Bucerius Press Prizes Announced

The ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius together with Stiftelsen Fritt Ord have now been announced the winners of the Gerd Bucerius press prizes 2015:

All in all, six prizes amounting to a total of 75.000 € are awarded in the Gerd Bucerius Free Press of Eastern Europe prize and the Stiftelsen Fritt Ord Free Press in Russia award schemes. The prizes go to the Georgian online newspaper Netgazeti, Tiflis, to the journalists Valentyna Samar and Sergiy Harmash, and to Slidstvo.Info from Ukraine, as well as the journalist Galina Timtschenko, and the paper Pskowskaja Gubernija

The online publication Netgazeti from Georgia is awarded 15.000 €. The politically independent news portal focuses on the rights of marginalized ethnic groups. It was nominated by the German Embassy  in Tiflis and the South Caucasus branch office of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung.

Sergiy Harmash (*1971) from Eastern Ukraine is editor-in-chief of the website Ostro V. and is awarded 10.000 €. The website is one of the most popular news sites in Ukraine which reaches 100.000 users daily. Sergiy Harmash was nominated by the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung für die Freiheit, Potsdam.

The agency for investigative journalism Slidstvo.Info from Ukraine is awarded 15.000 €. The organization provides objective and professional reporting. Slidstvo.Info was nominated by the Human Rights House Foundation and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, both based in Oslo.

Valentyna Samar (*1965) from Crimea, now based in Kiev, is awarded 10.000 €. The Ukrainian journalist was proposed for the press prize by the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung für die Freiheit, Potsdam, in honour of her willingness to publish critical reporting on political topics and investigations into corruption in Ukraine.

The weekly newspaper Pskowskaja Gubernija, published in Northwest Russia, is awarded 15.000 €. The paper uncovers grievances and abuses, in particular concerning manipulations in the regional elections in the Pskov area. Timofey Neshitov, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Munich, the Human Rights House Foundation and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, both based in Oslo, jointly nominated the local newspaper.

Galina Timtschenko (*1962) is awarded 10.000 €. The former editor-in-chief of a Russian news portal is an advocate of a free Russian-language press. As a response to Russian censorship, she founded the online media site Medusa, which began providing independent, uncensored information in October 2014. Galina Timtschenko was nominated by the Goethe-Institut Moscow.

The award ceremony will take place on 24 June 2015 at the Nobel Institute in Oslo.

Since 2000, the ZEIT-Stiftung has awarded the Gerd Bucerius Prize Free Press of Eastern Europe to those who support a free press, freedom of expression, and a liberal, civil society in the transition states of Eastern Europe. Since 2004, the prizes have been awarded by the Gerd Bucerius-Förderpreise Freie Presse Osteuropas together with the Norwegian Stiftelsen Fritt Ord, Oslo.