Winners of Akhmednabiyev award report on problems with access to information in Caucasus

Journalists covering the events in the Caucasus face pressure and restrictions in obtaining the information. This was announced by winners of the contest in memory of Akhmednabi Akhmednabiyev, a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. While preparing materials about the region, journalists should take high responsibility, the winners have stressed.

At the contest of 2015, the first place went to article "Battalion of Ghosts", written by Sergey Sokolov, deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta", and devoted to the Chechen trace in the murder of Boris Nemtsov.

The second place was shared by two journalists. Daniil Turovsky, a special correspondent of the online edition "Meduza", was awarded for his article "Said's Star" about a militant of the "Islamic State" (IS, banned in Russia, note of the "Caucasian Knot"), who had returned to Chechnya. And Grigory Tumanov, a "Kommersant" correspondent, was awarded for his article "Pogrom Criticism" about persecution of members of the Committee against Torture in Chechnya.

The third place went to Tatiana Gantimurova, a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, for her material about disappeared residents of Chechnya whose relatives appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

According to the award winners, the events in the Caucasus are rather poorly covered by the Russian media.

Many of journalists who write about the Caucasus either do not visit the region at all and get their information from social networks or visit the Caucasus irregularly, says Tatiana Gantimurova. She has also confirmed the fact that while meeting journalists in Chechnya, people often get a feeling of fear.

According to Grigory Tumanov, one more problem faced by journalists is the restriction on the dissemination of the information about the situation in the region.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.