With this year’s Award, the Central European Initiative (CEI) and the South East Europe Media Organization (SEEMO) wished to convey a message of support to Ukrainian independent media. They carry out their work with courage, efforts, quality reporting and persistence despite the challenges and threats caused by the Russian aggression to Ukraine.
Among the various journalists, the CEI and SEEMO have selected Anna Babinets for her long-lasting experience and commitment in investigative reporting as well as for her current engagement in providing evidence of war crimes against Ukrainian civilians.
Anna Babinets received the CEI SEEMO Award during the South East Europe Media Forum (link seemf.org) held in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on 16-17 November. She participated online and gave some highlights on the media situation in Ukraine from her view point, the impact of the war on her work and, more in general, on the everyday life.
Based in Kyiv, Ukraine, Anna Babinets is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the independent investigative agency Slidstvo.Info and member of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). In 2019, she received the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Courage in Journalism Award. She also worked on the Ukrainian segment of the Panama Papers project which won a Pulitzer Prize (2017). She was a reporter of the investigative documentary “Killing Pavel” about the murder of Ukrainian journalist Pavel Sheremet which won the 2017 Investigative Reporters and Editors Medal (USA) and the 2018 DIG Award (Italy). Babinets was also a member of the YanukovychLeaks investigative project which won a Global Shining Light Award from the Global Investigative Journalism Network in 2015.
Slidstvo.Info is one of the seven Ukrainian independent media which have recently received the Free Media Pioneer Award 2022 promoted by the IPI-International Press Institute in partnership with the IMS-International Media Support.
Babinets has been involved in the work of the jury of the CEI SEEMO Award for years and has actively contributed to the SEEMF, thus providing visibility to investigative journalism and highlighting its role in democratic societies.
For more info: fabro@cei.int