ANNA POLITKOVSKAYA’S AWARDS

2000

January. Moscow. Golden Pen Prize of the Russian Union of Journalists for reports on the struggle against corruption.

2001

January. Moscow. ‘Journalists Against Corruption’ Prize, Russian Union of Journalists with support from the Soros Foundation.

Special prize of the Russian Union of Journalists, ‘A Good Deed and a Kind Heart’. For aid to an old people’s home in Grozny. During bombing Anna managed to organise the evacuation of old and forgotten people to safe regions.

February. Moscow. Winner’s Certificate in the Golden Gong 2000 competition, with a bronze statuette of the goddess Iris. For a series of articles from Chechnya.

April. Washington. Inaugural winner of the Artyom Borovik Prize for Investigative Journalism, established in the USA by CBS and the Overseas Press Club and awarded by the Pulitzer Committee. For detailed chronicling of the Chechen War.

July. London. Global Award for Human Rights Journalism, Amnesty International’s highest award. For a series of reports on torture in Chechnya, and for many years of reporting from the Republic.

2002

London. Most Courageous Defence of Free Expression Prize from Index on Censorship.

October. Los Angeles. Courage in Journalism Award of the International Women’s Media Foundation, and Crystal Bird symbolising freedom. [Awarded in absentia since Anna was obliged to return to Moscow in connection with the Nord-Ost hostage-taking.] For work in dangerous and difficult conditions and reporting on the war in Chechnya.

December. Moscow. Winner of the Andrey Sakharov Prize for Journalism as Action. For consistently defending the rights and freedoms of inhabitants of Chechnya and courage in exposing war crimes.

2003

USA. Europe’s Heroes nomination by Time magazine.

February. Vienna. Prize for Journalism and Democracy of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe. For courageous professional activity in support of human rights and freedom of the mass media, for publications on the state of human rights in Chechnya.

October. Berlin. Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage, established by Lettre International magazine, the Aventis Foundation, and the Goethe Institute, for her book Tchétchénie, le déshonneur russe, published in France.

November. Darmstadt. Prize of the German PEN Centre and Hermann Kesten Medal. For courageous reporting of events in Chechnya.

2005

January. Stockholm. Olof Palme Prize, the Olof Palme Foundation. For courage and strength when reporting in difficult and dangerous circumstances, shared with Ludmila Alexeyeva and Sergey Kovalyov.

April. Leipzig. Prize for the Freedom and Future of the Media, Media Foundation of Sparkasse Leipzig. For her contribution to developing freedom of the press.

October. New York. Civil Courage Prize of the Northcote Parkinson Fund [now the Train Foundation]. For steadfast resistance to evil at great personal risk. [John Train is the father-in-law of American journalist Paul Klebnikov who was murdered in Moscow.]

2006

October [posthumously]. Tiziano Terzani International Literary Prize. To mark the rare moral courage of Anna Politkovskaya, who paid with her life for criticising abuses of power.

December. Reporter of the Year, National Union of Italian Reporters, to Anna Politkovskaya who ‘died defending her right to bring the truth to the public, and people’s right to obtain truthful and free information’.

‘Flouting the Law’, annual prize for journalism, awarded by the Open Russia Foundation.

For Valour, special award from the Artyom Borovik Prize committee.

2007

Paris. UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. ‘Anna Politkovskaya showed incredible courage and stubbornness in chronicling events in Chechnya after the whole world had given up on that conflict. Her dedication and fearless pursuit of the truth set the highest benchmark of journalism, not only for Russia but for the rest of the world. Indeed, Anna’s courage and commitment were so remarkable that we decided, for the first time, to award the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize posthumously.’

July. Washington, DC. John Aubuchon Freedom of the Press Award, the National Press Club. ‘Anna Politkovskaya, who never let death threats deter her from her remarkable reporting of the conflict in Chechnya, deserves to be remembered and honored for her courage and commitment to journalism.’

September. Washington, DC. Democracy Award to Spotlight Press Freedom, the National Endowment for Democracy. ‘Throughout her distinguished career as a Russian journalist, Anna was an outspoken advocate for human rights and an end to the devastating war in Chechnya.’

October 7. The first Anna Politkovskaya Award ‘to recognise women who are defending human rights in zones of war and conflict’ was presented to Natalia Estemirova, ‘a close friend and colleague of Anna as well as a courageous human rights defender and freelance journalist, working in Chechnya for the human rights organisation, Memorial’.

The Prize was instituted by Reach All Women in War, with the support of the Nobel Peace Prize winners Mairead Maguire, Betty Williams, Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Wangari Maathai, Rigoberta Menchú Tum and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, as well as Elena Bonner, Tatiana Yankelevich, President Václav Havel, Harold Pinter, The Hon. Zbigniew Brzezinski, André Glucksmann, Gloria Steinem, Sergey Kovalyov, Terry Waite, CBE, Susan Sarandon, Alexei Simonov, Gillian Slovo, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Marek Edelman (the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising), Elisabeth Rehn, Mariane Pearl, Adam Michnik, Asma Jahangir, Sister Helen Prejean, Ariel Dorfman, Vanessa Redgrave, Michael Cunningham, Eve Ensler, John Sweeney, Jonathan Schell, Noam Chomsky, Marina Litvinenko, Lyudmila Alekseeva, Desmond O’Malley, Anne Nivat, Victor Fainberg, Lord Frank Judd, Lord Nicolas Rea, Lord Anthony Giddens, Lord Nazir Ahmed, Baroness Shirley Williams, Baroness Molly Meacher, Sir Nigel Rodley, Professor Yakin Erturk, Anna’s sister, Elena Kudimova, Natasha Kandic, Caroline McCormick, Sister Marya Grathwohl, Heidi Bradner, Meglena Kuneva, Elizabeth Kostova, Esther Chavez, John D. Panitza, Dubravka Ugresic, Katrina van den Heuvel, Victor Navasky, Aidan White, Holly Near, Elizabeth Frank, and many others.

Natalia Estemirova said,

‘I am proud to receive an award in Anna’s name and honouring what Anna stood for. This award is extremely important for me and my colleagues, because it will enable us to continue our work for human rights in Chechnya and to further help the victims of this war.

‘Freedom is not something given to a person. Freedom matters only if you feel free inside yourself. Anna was an absolutely free person.

‘I would like to say to the people of Europe: please do not forget that Chechnya is in Europe. Please know that we are human beings like you, we want the same things as you do. And do not ignore our suffering in exchange for cheap gas and oil. There is no such thing as suffering that can be contained behind closed doors without eventually also affecting all of us. Please stand up to protect our lives and to restore our human dignity, because in doing so, you help preserve your own.’

[Natalia Estermirova was abducted and murdered in Chechnya on 15 July 2009.]