On 14 December 2013 the Delegation of the European Union to Georgia and the EU Monitoring Mission (EUMM) awarded the winners of the EU Prize for Journalism 2013.
The Vice Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Manana Konakhidze, the Head of the EUMM Toivo Klaar, the Deputy Ambassador of the EU Delegation to Georgia Boris Yarochevitch, the Chairman of the Jury Zviad Koridze and Jury Member Tamar Rukhadze awarded the winners.
This year EUMM awarded a Special Prize for Peace Journalism.
The Special Prize went to Olesya Vartanyan, from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, with the report ‘Hope keeps up relatives’.
“No matter how hard organizations such as EUMM try to help build confidence and how much funding is allocated for projects, no sustainable result can be achieved if journalists do not fulfill their role as impartial, objective observers, providing the public with an unbiased, comprehensive account of a situation, portraying all points of view,” said Mr Klaar when announcing the winner of the Prize.
Ms Vartanyan won an attractive fellowship allowing her to participate in a one-month internship at the Caucasus Programme at the headquarters of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) in London.
“This Prize also goes to all my colleagues at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty,” said Ms Vartanyan, who added that she had just landed in Tbilisi a few hours prior to the ceremony and was surprised to be the winner.
The other winners of this year’s EU Journalism Competition are:
1. Mariam Otarashvili, with the article ‘The First report from Tskhinvali after the war’ (Georgian Daily ‘Rezonansi’ ) as the best investigative or opinion article in printed or online media;
2. Giorgi Mgeladze, with the TV Investigation ‘Agent Provocateur at the Service of the Authority’ (Studio Monitori) for the Best TV/Radio report;
3. Giorgi Kikonishvili, with the blogpost ‘A Human, you son of a bitch’ (Liberali) for the Best social media profile, blog or blog post;
4. Netgazeti, for the most informative news agency or online newspaper
