Belarus in Focus 2015 – winners announced!

This year, the competition received 71 articles by 59 authors from 16 countries. Many of these articles were of excellent quality and the jury had a hard time coming to a decision.

The jury made its decision based on fact accuracy, amount of author’s work, avoiding clichés, and the originality of the chosen topic among other factors. This competition has also seen a difference in the quality of articles between professional and beginner journalists. Therefore, the jury has decided to assign 4 prizes to professional journalists and 1 prize to the beginner.

After careful consideration, the jury has awarded prizes to (in alphabetical order):

Professional

• Kristina Berdynskykh (Ukraine), Not Really Russian World. Recent Events in Ukraine Made Belarusians Reconsider Their Self-identification, Novoye Vremya (New Time), 10.3.2015
• John Brannen (Canada), The Children of Chernobyl: Canada, Belarus and the ties that bind worlds apart, TC Media, 23.9.2015
• Ekaterina Loushnikova (Russia), The ‘parasite law’ in Belarus, openDemocracy, 16.6.2015
• Christian Unger (Germany), On the train into darkness- a search for traces from the Grindel quarter to Minsk, Hamburger Abendblatt , 30.5.2015

Beginner

• Tatiana Dvornikova (Russia), The Language Barrier, Kommersant Vlast’, 21.9.2015

Jury members wish to give special mentions to the following participants in the beginner category:

• Dmitry Okrest (Russia), Loose Security Prison, Spektr.press, 9.10.2015
• Alyona Savchuk (Ukraine), Elections Second-Hand. Why is Political Life in Belarus is Buried and Forgotten, Focus, 16.10.2015

Winners in the professional category will receive certificates of 500 EUR for professional development each, and the winner in the beginners category will receive a certificate of 300 EUR for professional development. Both winners and those who have recieved special mentions from the jury are also kindly invited to a journalist workshop with members of the jury which will take place in Minsk on April 28-30th. The award ceremony will take place during the workshop. Other competition participants may also be invited depending on the number of remaining places.

The winners of the trip to Brussels, the capital of the European Union are:

Hanna Liubakova, for the article “Maybe a new airbase, definitely the same president in Belarus”, published in New America Weekly, October 8^th, 2015

Vadim Mojeiko, for the article “Soft Belarusization: A New Shift In Lukashenka’s Domestic Policy?”, published in Belarus Digest, April 21^st, 2015

The trip will be organized by Belarus in Focus Information Office and the office of the MEP Agnieszka Kozlowska-Rajewicz.

We are also glad to invite the winners to the international journalist workshop in Minsk which will happen on April 28-30^th.

The participants who will receive a trip to the Guardian’s office in London will be announced at a later date.

The online competition will continue until the award-giving ceremony on April 30^th, 2016. We will announce the winner on the award-giving ceremony.