Iryna Khalip Awarded ‘Order Of Courage’ Named After Andrei Sakharov

The jury of the contest “Journalism as an act of conscience” awarded the Order of Courage named after Andrei Sakharov to the journalists of six countries.

Journalists from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, who were persecuted by the authorities for their civil position, were awarded.

Among the awardees are commentators of the Russian Novaya Gazeta Olga Romanova and Yulia Latynina, as well as staff reporter in Belarus and author of the Charter97.org Iryna Khalip.

The Order "For Courage" was also awarded to Oleg Kashin, Alexei Kungurov, Oleg Sentsov, Boris Stomakhin, Vadim Tyumentsev, Alexander Sokolov, Darya Polyudova and others.

The award was awarded posthumously to the five murdered employees of the Novaya Gazeta - Anna Politkovskaya, Yuri Shchekochikhin, Igor Domnikov, Natalia Estemirova, Anastasia Baburova.

The Andrei Sakharov Order “Journalism as an act of conscience” is awarded to journalists for the materials that become a continuation of the authors' life position, consistently embodied in the work at a high professional level, and uphold the values advocated by Andrei Sakharov.

The founder of the award is a human rights activist and entrepreneur Pyotr (Peter) Vince. The permanent chairman of the jury is Alexei Simonov. The jury includes well-known journalists, human rights activists, sociologists of Russia, a number of foreign journalists (Spain, Austria, USA).