Journalists' work in Caucasus awarded with Sakharov Prize

On January 31, the ceremony of awarding the Andrei Sakharov Prize for "Journalism as an Act" to mark the merits of journalists and rights defenders was held in Moscow. Among the winners of the Sakharov Prize were Elena Milashina, Pavel Kanygin and Ali Feruz, correspondents of the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta", Ukrainian journalist Roman Suschenko, Kuban activist Darya Polyudova, the "Dozhd" (Rain) TV Channel, the edition "Takie Dela" and the "Caucasian Knot".

The award ceremony aroused great interest, and approximately ten minutes before the start of the event, it became clear that a small hall could hardly accommodate all the guests, including colleagues, relatives and friends of the laureates.

The Elena Milashina's award was handed over to Sergey Kozheurov, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta". He told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the editors' office sometimes receives threats because of its publications about violations of human rights and corruption.

"Dangerous topics are associated with corruption investigations. And even more dangerous topics include violations of human rights in certain regions of our country, especially in the Caucasus," said the editor-in-chief of the "Novaya Gazeta".

The "Caucasian Knot" was among the awarded media.

Zhalaudi Geriev, one of the laureates of the award, is serving his three-year term of imprisonment in Chechnya on the charge of drug possession: in the spring of 2016, the journalist was kidnapped by armed people who tortured him in a forest, asked him about his journalistic activities, and then forced him to confess to marijuana possession.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.