Human Rights Information Center’s journalists win contest of articles on tolerance

The journalists of the Human Rights Information Centre – editor-in-chief of the website Iryna Vyrtosu and production editor Viktoriia Naidonova – won the prizes in the contest of articles on tolerance and mutual understanding in society.

V International contest of articles on tolerance, integration, mutual respect and understanding in society, dedicated to the memory of human rights activist Yuri Ataman, was organized by the East-European network of peacemaking NGOs of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC).

The articles, published in the printed and online media of the Republic of Belarus, Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine during January 1, 2014 – April 30, 2015, took part in the contest.

The organizing committee received about 60 articles in four languages. The majority of the works, submitted for the contest of 2015, were written by the authors who participated in the competition for the first time.

This year, taking into account the difficult socio-political situation, the emphasis was laid not only on examples of successful overcoming of misunderstandings and contradictions in the society, unbiased coverage of conflicts and finding a way out of them, but also on the methods of conducting conflicts by means of mass media, the problem of dehumanization of the parties, and information design of the image of an enemy in a situation of the armed conflict.

The first nomination “The best article, revealing an example of successful overcoming of misunderstandings and contradictions in the society and reaching common ground (through dialogue, integration, common finding of solutions, and the like)”:

1st prize – Olha Vesnianka “Why does Ukraine need the law on the indigenous people?” (Ukraine, INSIDER online media, April 2015);

2nd prize – Daniela Timofti “Limbarusăşiromână: barieredesocializare” (Moldova, Reporter Local, February 2015);

3rd prize – Iryna Vyrtosu “Multi-national Ukraine: 134 national minorities and indigenous peoples” (Ukraine, Radio of Liberty website, January 2015)

The second nomination “The best unbiased article about the conflict and finding a way out of it, giving a balanced reflection on the subject matter of the conflict, positions of the parties, demonstrating the possibilities and potential of non-violent methods of conflict settlement”:

1st prize – Tetiana Kalenichenko “Frozen conflict. Twenty years after the war in Yugoslavia” (Ukraine, Religious Information Service of Ukraine, February 2015)

2nd prize – Yana Sedova “I wish I would not see this war. Everything is broken!” (Ukraine, Apostrophe online media, February 2015)

3rd prize – Lana Borysova “Dad” (Ukraine, Arguments of the Week newspaper, April 2014)

The third nomination “The best article on the role of media in the information confrontation containing an unbiased analysis of the methods of conflict by means of mass media, providing a reader with the tools for recognizing and leveling the information manipulations of each of the parties to the conflict, as well as revealing the problem of dehumanization of the parties, and information design of the image of an enemy in a situation of the armed conflict.” The jury, unfortunately, failed to identify the article worthy of the 1st place which would meet all the stated criteria.

2nd prize was shared by:

Vlad Grinevskiy “Are you a gay? Why do you insult them?” (Belarus, Radio Ratsia website, February 2015)

Iryna Vyrtosu “Crimea: restarting Ukrainian mass media” (Ukraine, MediaSapiens website, March 2014)

3rd prize – Viktoriia Naidonova “Journalism of humanitarian crisis: How not to do harm?” (Ukraine, Human Rights Information Center, February 2015)