Nadira Isayeva, journalist from Dagestan, awarded the "Free Press" prize

On November, 23, a ceremony of awarding the laureates of international prize "Free Press" 2010 by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) was held in New York, a thirty-one-year-old journalist from Dagestan, Nadira Isayeva, Editor-in-Chief of "Chernovik" ("Draft") weekly among them. 

This prize is awarded for bravery of journalists and publishers revealed in carrying out their professional duties. Beside the Russian journalist, representatives of Ethiopia, Venezuela and Iran have also been rewarded. As it had been formerly stated in an official message of the Committee to Protect Journalists, these people had risked their freedom and safety to deliver true information to the readers.

Nadira Isayeva herself had formerly told a reporter of "Caucasian Knot" that she was not glad to receive the prize when she saw the list of the countries together with the journalists from which she was going to be awarded. "On seeing this company I realized what kind of countries Russia is listed among if I, its citizen, am getting this award. Thanks to this list of the countries journalists from which were being nominated together with me, I saw Russia's place in the conditional rating of countries from the point of view of freedom of speech", Nadira Isayeva said.

She emphasizes that her weekly has always been in contact with CPJ which was scrupulously monitoring the state of affairs with criminal cases against the newspaper. "To be frank, I was surprised with this reward. I think it is not exactly a prize for my own publications but for the newspaper's position on the whole", Nadira Isayeva says.

The editor of the Dagestani paper has time and again commented on the events going on in the republic for "Caucasian Knot" and her publications in the newspaper contain consistent criticism of the methods of the state's struggle against terrorism which she considers inefficient, as well as analyses of a complex political situation in the republic.