PEC press release (French and Russian after English)
Geneva, 14 November 2022 (PEC) – The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) rewards in Geneva Russian journalist Ekaterina Glikman for her ongoing and exemplary commitment to press freedom in Russia. The journalist is currently working from Switzerland in the direction of Novaya Gazeta Europe, founded in April 2022 by the former Novaya Gazeta journalists who had to flee Russia.
“The state of press freedom in Russia has deteriorated considerably since the Russian invasion of Ukraine decided by President Vladimir Putin in February 2022. Many Russian journalists have chosen to go into exile to continue to work freely. The PEC 2022 award is dedicated to them”, said PEC President Blaise Lempen.
At the end of March 2022 Novaya Gazeta was forced to cease its activities in Russia and at the beginning of April Novaya Gazeta Europe was established. Ekaterina Glikman lives in Schaffhausen and is married to a Swiss journalist who helps Novaya Gazeta Europe with fundraising.
Ekaterina Glikman has been working for Novaya Gazeta for more than 20 years and has collaborated with journalist Anna Politkovskaya until her killing in 2006 and Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov, among others. Six journalists of the opposition newspaper have been killed over the years.
“Ekaterina continues her fight for free information from Switzerland. She and the entire Novaya Gazeta Europe team deserve our encouragement until Russia finds its way back to freedom. It is in Moscow that the fate of Ukrainians and Europe is at stake and we must support the Russians who oppose the war crimes perpetrated every day by the Kremlin in Ukraine”, added the PEC President.
“Receiving the PEC award is an incredible moral support. All these months of war we, those Russians who are against the war, torture ourselves with the question: how did we let this happen ? It is hard to live with. So thank you for your encouragement”, said Ekaterina Glickman at the press conference in Geneva.
“I started working as a journalist at exactly the same time as Putin came to power. So I witnessed from the inside how the space of free journalism shrank during his rule until it disappeared completely. But…If it is no longer possible to provide Russians with truthful information being in Russia, then it must be done from abroad. Why do it ? Does it make any sense if the country is poisoned by years of propaganda and it is impossible to compete with it ? My answer is yes. Peaple should not be left alone with propaganda. No people deserve that”, added Ekaterina Glikman.
The year 2022 is shaping up to be one of the deadliest for journalism, with more than 100 journalists killed since January so far. According to the Institute for Mass Information, an Ukrainian NGO based in Kiev, more than 40 journalists have died in the war since February 2022. Of these, about ten were killed while on assignment, the others as members of the Ukrainian army or as ordinary civilians.
The PEC was founded in Geneva in 2004 by a group of journalists of several nationalities to strengthen the protection and safety of media workers around the world. Since 2009, it has awarded its annual prize to an individual or organisation working for the protection of journalists and press freedom in the field.
Last year the award went to Indian journalist Nava Thakuria, the year before to Mexican journalist Carmen Aristegui, in 2019 to the director of the Afghan Journalists Centre Ahmed Quraishi while in 2018 the award went to the family of Daphne Caruana Galizia murdered in Malta in October 2017.
More info at: www.pressemblem.ch
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