Kyiv, April 27, 2011 ― The World Bank Office in Ukraine has awarded five Ukrainian journalists from regional print and online media outlets for their coverage of anti-corruption efforts. Among the winners are Oleg Oganov and Yaroslav Chepurnoi from Mykolaiv, Oleg Peretyaka from Lugansk, Igor Gryshchenkо from Chernigiv, and Anna Pavlyuk from Kherson.
“An active mass media has always been recognized by the World Bank as being essential to furthering citizens’ understanding of reforms, gathering their feedback, and passing that feedback on to policy makers,” said Martin Raiser, World Bank Country Director for Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova. “So it is a great honor for me to award these journalists whose work has shown that when ordinary citizens are given hope, treated with dignity, and empowered with information, positive change can be achieved.”
The Contest Jury reviewed article submissions published between January 12 and March 12, 2011. The Jury consisted of representatives from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Ukrainian Association of Press Publishers (UAPP), and the Counterpart Creative Center (CCC).
The jury evaluated articles according to criteria, including demonstration of a positive experience in solving a corruption problem (or problems), concrete examples, complete coverage of the topic, writing style, and facts versus editorializing in the author’s work.
The contest was announced by the World Bank’s Ukrainian Country Office at the beginning of January 2011. Its aim has been to raise public awareness and deliver objective and impartial information about corruption and the methods of countering corruption, while showing concrete, positive anti-corruptions results by ordinary citizens in areas such as health and community services – two public domains that have been perceived by many experts as the most difficult ones to reform in Ukraine.
