On the 24th anniversary of the murder of Georgiy Gongadze, a memorial avenue was opened in Kyiv and a memorial event was held

In Kyiv, on Kontraktova Square, a temporary Alley was presented in memory of Ukrainian journalist Georgiy Gongadze, who was kidnapped and killed 24 years ago. The memorial event ended with the laying of flowers on the grave of Georgiy Gongadze, located on the Mykola Naberezhny Church grounds in Podil.

The alley consists of informational banners about the life and activities of the journalist, designed to demonstrate Georgiy’s contribution to the formation of democratic Ukraine, civil society, and the spread of the “Ukrainian voice” in the world. The opening of the alley marked the start of the Georgiy Gongadze Memorial Week, organized for the first time by the Georgiy Gongadze Award team. You can see the exhibition until September 22, 20:00.

“In the conditions of Russia’s aggressive attempts to once again bind us, Ukrainians, it is important to return not just to the origins of history, but to specific personalities. People who were the drivers of change, who became the impetus for historical changes. Georgiy was just like that. The alley that we are opening in Kyiv, on Kontraktova Street, should demonstrate Gongadze’s contribution to the transformations that Ukraine has experienced and is experiencing. His contribution is everywhere – in the formation of civil society, culture, self-identification, freedom of speech and media development. Georgiy’s thoughts, practices and outlook remain relevant to this day. This avenue is another reminder that heroes of Ukraine cannot and will not be forgotten, and evil must always be punished. Threats, repression and murder have no place in Ukraine,” said the Program Director of the award, Vladyslav Zinkevych.

“For me, the story of Giya Gongadze is a story about people of compromise and people of self-sacrifice. We know that people of compromise will always find an explanation and sometimes these are rational explanations of their compromise, reality at a crucial moment. I am sure that there were many colleagues next to Georgiy who chose a different path, who chose to remain silent, who chose not to help Georgiy. Obviously, these people are with us in the profession and this path, which I would not even dare to evaluate such a compromise. I am now recalling the words of Volodymyr Yermolenko, President of the PEN Ukraine, who said how important the balance of two ethical systems is for society. Systems of exchange and systems of battles,” said Myroslava Barchuk, a Ukrainian journalist and TV presenter, Vice-President of PEN Ukraine and a person who knew Georgiy Gongadze personally.

“The disappearance of Georgiy Gongadze was a big shock for Ukrainians, the next shock was the release of the so-called Melnichenko films. Unfortunately, we still do not know the truth about Georgiy’s order, where the tapes came from. The country has never seen the real records, nor the original media. The society did not learn the truth about those who ordered the murder. The fact that we know that Georgiy was killed by Police General Oleksii Pukachi with his own hands and that he is serving a life sentence. This is an extraordinary achievement, because in such cases, justice is not always, not often, at least to the perpetrators,” said Valentyna Telychenko, human rights defender and representative of the Gongadze family.

“People who commit attacks and break cameras do not realize their responsibility. They see dozens, maybe even hundreds of unsolved cases, and think about what poses a greater danger to them: journalists’ materials about them or orders for murder,” said Ukrainian Pravda Investigative Journalist Mykhailo Tkach.

“To be a person means to take responsibility, it means to feel one’s individual role, and the story of Georgiy is precisely about this role of a person who, despite the fact that someone thinks that a journalist is not serious, that it is possible to oppose his activities that you can hide the truth with impunity by destroying journalism or physically destroying journalists, no, but that’s not how it works. Man matters. From my own experience, the protests that I joined at the time were a preparation, in fact, an introduction to the Orange Revolution,” says Olha Salo, Deputy Director General of the National Memorial Complex of the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred – Museum of the Revolution of Dignity, recalling the events of the protests.

“Actually, he (Georgiy) was not a part of our daily life, but he is such a strong and attractive figure that even decades after his death, new people come to the profession, people come to whom his figure and what he did are important,” – Executive Director of PEN Ukraine, initiator of the Georgiy Gongadze Award Tetiana Teren.

The Head of the Human Rights Centre ZMINA, Tetiana Pechonchyk, noted that Russian forces are currently harassing Ukrainian journalists, and the list of injured journalists is constantly increasing.

“There are currently 30 Ukrainian journalists in Russian captivity, including 16 Crimean and Crimean Tatar journalists. Four more journalists joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine and were captured as combatants. Russia does not give up our people, it is very difficult to influence the Russian Federation. It is very important for each of us to continue to fight, to tell the stories of these journalists, to spread information about them, to put pressure on Russia through our information platforms. Some of the prisoners have serious health problems and may not live to be released. Just as Georgiy fought for freedom of speech, we will fight for our colleagues who are in Russian captivity,” said Pechonchyk.

As the Director of the Institute of Mass Information Oksana Romaniuk noted, 94 journalists have died since 2014:

“They were killed by the aggressor country. And just as the murder of Georgiy Gongadze caused an explosion of demands and requests for justice in society, so this death of our colleagues shows how important it is to highlight Russian aggression. Before Georgiy was killed, it seems to me that we did not have such an awareness of the importance of anti-corruption journalism, investigative journalism, which is one of the foundations of the media landscape today. This made it possible for journalists to unite, and the first active journalistic organizations emerged.“

The event ended with the commemoration of Georgiy Gongadze and the laying of flowers at his grave on the Mykola Naberezhny Church grounds in Podil.

Organizational partners: National Museum of the Revolution of Dignity, PEN Ukraine, ZMINA.

Information partner: “Media Detector”, “Ukrainian Pravda”, IMI.

The Georgiy Gongadze Award is an award and an ecosystem of initiatives for independent journalists, established by the PEN Ukraine in partnership with the Kyiv-Mohyla Business School and the publication “Ukrainian Pravda”. The award is presented once a year, on May 21, on the birthday of Georgiy Gongadze.

The laureates of the award were Tetiana Troshchynska (2024), Bohdan Lohvynenko (2023), Yevhen Malolietka and Mstyslav Chernov in tandem (2022), Myroslava Barchuk (2021), Pavlo Kazarin (2020), Vakhtanh Kipiani (2019).