Of the seven nominations for the Free Press of Eastern Europe Gerd Bucerius (ZEIT) Award Human Rights House Foundation was involved in, four were officially named winners today. In addition to the two Belarusian winners, HRH F was involved in the successful nominations of one Azeri and one Russian journalist. (03-MAR-08)

Based on information received from The Freedom of Expression Foundation, Norway, this article has been written by HRH F / Ane Tusvik Bonde and Niels Jacob Harbitz.

Lead by Frauke Hamann, the Gerd Bucerius ZEIT Stiftung Awards are annually presented to media outlets considered to uphold and promote media freedom in Eastern Europe. The actual awards will be handed over in a ceremony hosted by the Norwegian Freedom of Expression Foundation in Oslo 19 May.

From Belarus, two non-state periodical publications; ‘Gazeta Slonimskaya,’ a weekly for the Hrodna region, and ‘Yezhednevnik,’ an electronic newspaper will receive the prize. Both were recommended by the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) and nominated by HRH F, with the support of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC), the Norwegian Association of Journalists and Norwegian PEN. The nomination of ‘Gazeta Slonimskaya’ was supported also by the State Minister of the German Foreign Office, Gernot Erler.

From Azerbaijan, the journalist Rauf Mikadyrau from the newspaper Zerkalo (the Mirror), recommended by the independent news agency Turan, a previous winner of the same award, was successfully nominated by the NHC, with the support of HRH F and Norwegian PEN. And finally, from the Russian Federation, Jelena Larinovna from Barents Press, was also nominated NHC, with HRH F’s support. There was also a second winner from the Russian Federation, the Novaya Gazeta journalist Viktoria Iuleva. The Norwegian Journalists Association nominated her together with Norwegian PEN and the Russian Association of Journalists.

HRH F congratulates all the winners, and also those who didn’t quite make the final cut.