The winner is Oksana Mytko, Observer of 7 Dnei newspaper of BelTA UE. The journalist was awarded the first prize for her blogs “Fathers and Sons. On Paternity Leave…” and “Run Lola Run”.
The first runner-up is the team of authors from Mahilioŭ – Nina Mikhnova, Marina Kasyanova, Maksim Ostroukhov, and Lubov Duktova, Associate Professor of the Journalism Department of Mahilioŭ State University named after A. Kuleshov. The journalists presented the script of the radio show “On Equal Terms”.
The third prize was awarded to Elena Prus, Editor of BelTA Regional Information Department. The jury chaired by the Director of the Journalism Institute of the Belarusian State University Sergei Dubovik highly praised her brilliant interview with Irina Alkhovka - an expert on gender issues - published under the title “Developing a Law on Gender Equality is Desirable in Belarus”.
There were no publications submitted for the competition in the nomination “Best Debut”, so the jury decided to start a nomination “For periodical coverage of gender topics in regional media”. This award was given to Margarita Savchuk, a journalist of Kobryn-Inform newspaper of BugInfoMedia private unitary publishing enterprise. The author started a thematic standing head in the district newspaper and has been giving periodic media exposure to the issue of domestic violence. Six articles by Margarita Savchuk were shortlisted for the competition.
According to the Competition Regulations the first prize of the competition is a trip to a country with a rich experience of counteracting domestic violence. The winner of the competition – Oksana Mytko – will take part in a four-day study trip to Israel as a member of the Belarusian delegation. The first and the second runners-up as well as the special prize winner received valuable prizes: a camera, a tablet computer and a voice recorder.
Certificates for active participation and prizes were also given to the journalists whose materials got high scores. These are:
Marina Vorobei, TUT.BY web portal,
Tatyana Hapeeva, Brestskaya Gazeta newspaper,
Maria Zubkova, Znamya Yunosti newspaper,
Ludmila Konopelko, Narodnaya Gazeta newspaper,
Maria Kucherova, Sovetskaya Belorussiya newspaper,
Raisa Meleshevich, 7 Dnei newspaper,
Vera Sirota, www.myfamily.by web portal,
Yuliya Teltevskaya, Argumenty I Fakty v Belorussii weekly newspaper
Natalia Cherkes, Perspektiva - Hrodna based Oblast newspaper,
Olga Chiruk, Na Strazhe newspaper,
and Aleksander Goveiko from Gomel television and radio broadcasting company. The journalist submitted for the competition an interesting script for a talk show on domestic violence, which was aired during the competition period, however, the application was submitted too late, and the work could not qualify for the prize.
The UN Population Fund congratulates the winners and thanks all competition participants!
The materials by the competition winners and certificate holders will be posted at the web site in the section“Resources/Gender Equality/Articles”.
For reference. The journalism competition for the best gender related publication was held as part of the international technical assistance project “Developing National Capacity to Counteract Domestic Violence in Belarus in the Context of Increased Gender Equality” by the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) with financial support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. Any journalist could participate, including free-lance authors who had published a gender related text, photos or video in Russian or Belarusian in the mass media of the Republic of Belarus from 15 March to 20 August 2013, and also authors who had not published gender-related publications but had prepared some materials and were interested to publish them. The works were assessed bearing in mind the following criteria: Topicality, Objectivity, Originality, and Style. The jury chaired by the Director of the Journalism Institute of the Belarusian State University Sergei Dubovik was composed of the representatives of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, National Council on Gender Policy at the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus, Gender Perspectives International Public Association, Union of Sisterhoods of Charity of the Belarusian Orthodox Church and UN Population Fund.
