Free Media Awards For Journalists In Troubled Hungary, Georgia, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Azerbaijan
By Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief
HAMBURG/OSLO/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Six independent journalists and media outlets from Eastern and Central Europe have been named laureates of the 2025 Free Media Awards, honoring their investigative reporting under pressure from what they view as authoritarian regimes.
The prizes, announced by Norway’s Fritt Ord Foundation and Germany’s ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius, recognize “valiant investigative journalism under exceedingly difficult circumstances.”
Each laureate receives 15,000 euros (about $16,500) to support their work. Both foundations are longstanding defenders of press freedom, awarding the prizes annually in Hamburg or Oslo.
Among the recipients is Direkt36, a Budapest-based investigative newsroom recognized for exposing corruption and abuses of power.
In February, its team released the viral documentary The Dynasty – How the Orbán Family’s Economic Empire Was Born, which examined how businesses linked to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s family — notably his son-in-law István Tiborcz — benefited from lucrative public contracts flagged by EU auditors.
The film has been viewed nearly four million times and sparked nationwide debate.
NOT WATCHING
Prime Minister Orbán dismissed the investigation, insisting he did not watch “this kind of stuff,” while government allies accused the journalists of staging a smear campaign.
Hungarian investigative journalist Szabolcs Pányi, 37, said he was “incredibly proud” that Direkt36 was named among the laureates. “Our documentary The Dynasty – How the Orbán Family’s Economic Empire Was Born is not only this year’s most important Hungarian investigation, it has also struck a chord internationally,” he told Worthy News.
Gwara Media, based in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, was recognized for its fact-based war reporting from the frontlines.
Founded by Serhii Prokopenko, 35, the newsroom has documented what it says are Russian war crimes and the psychological and social toll of the ongoing war in Ukraine on civilians.
It also runs an innovative fact-checking project, Perevirka, to combat disinformation in a city regularly targeted by Russian missiles since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“For Ukrainian journalists, war means reporting under conditions of survival,” Prokopenko said. “Even in a brutal war, free journalism is possible and important.”
JAILED IN GEORGIA
Mzia Amaglobeli, 50, a veteran journalist and founder of the Batumelebi and Netgazeti outlets, was honored for 25 years of independent reporting.
She is currently serving a two-year prison sentence on charges rights groups say are politically motivated, after years of exposing corruption and human rights abuses. She is the first female journalist jailed on such grounds in Georgia since Soviet times.
Alexandra Astakhova, 34, a Moscow-based freelance photojournalist, was awarded for documenting the trials of political prisoners and dissidents.
Unlike many colleagues who fled Russia after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, she stayed and risked arrest to bring international attention to their plight.
The Belarusian Investigative Center (BIC), established in 2018 and now operating in exile in Warsaw, Poland, received the award for uncovering state corruption and sanctions-busting schemes worth billions.
The team includes a network of Belarusian journalists, many of them in their 30s and 40s, who work under the threat of reprisals.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Nargiz Absalamova, 25, a reporter with Abzas Media, was honored for covering “climate change, corruption and social rights.”
She was sentenced in June to eight years in prison on charges observers viewed as fabricated, part of a broader crackdown on female journalists in Azerbaijan.
Before her arrest, Absalamova stressed that giving voice to vulnerable communities in Azerbaijan was “worth the risk,” though she admitted that “being a woman journalist here means facing danger every day.”
The awards will be presented in Hamburg on November 6, following a press freedom conference the day before as part of “Freedom of the Press Week.”
The Free Media Awards were established in 2016 by the Fritt Ord Foundation and the ZEIT-Stiftung to strengthen independent journalism in Eastern Europe. The organizers say the goal is to support reporters who “work courageously under authoritarian conditions” and to ensure their voices are heard internationally at a time when press freedom is under growing threat.
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