Ukraine's Channel 5 selected to receive OSCE Prize for Journalism and Democracy (06/26/05)

Ukraine's Channel 5 selected to receive OSCE Prize for Journalism and Democracy

COPENHAGEN - The president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, U.S. Rep. Alcee L. Hastings, announced on June 13 that Ukraine Television Channel 5 will be awarded the 10th annual OSCE Prize for Journalism and Democracy.

In announcing the winner, President Hastings said that the Assembly was "honoring the professionalism that Channel 5 has displayed by reporting important information even under difficult circumstances."

The Assembly will present Channel 5 with the prize at a special ceremony on July 1 in conjunction with the assembly's 14th annual session in Washington.

Channel 5 played a crucial role in the events of October-December 2004 in which Ukraine peacefully transitioned to a more democratically oriented and legitimately elected system of government. With great courage, the channel reported independently at a time when the government was placing strict controls on media coverage, ignoring widespread popular discontent and working to manipulate electoral processes.

"It is precisely such credible reporting, so courageously displayed by Channel 5, which the assembly hoped to encourage in establishing this prize 10 years ago," said President Hastings.

The OSCE Prize for Journalism and Democracy was established by the Parliamentary Assembly in 1996 to recognize journalists or organizations who, through their work, have promoted OSCE principles of human rights and democracy. The prize is awarded annually to one or more winners, decided upon by the Assembly Bureau based on a recommendation of the assembly's Prize Committee, and amounts to $20,000 (U.S.), which is raised primarily through private donations from publishing companies in member-states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The previous recipients of the Prize are Adam Michnik (1996); Reporters sans Frontiëres (1997); Timothy Garton Ash (1998); Christiane Amanpour (1999); Andrei Babitsky (2000); Heorhii Gongadze and Josè Luis Lûpez de Lacalle (2001 posthumously); Friedrich Orter and Pavel Sheremet (2002); Anna Politkovskaya (2003); and the Committee to Protect Journalists (2004).

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The Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE, created by the CSCE Summit in Paris in 1990, is the parliamentary dimension of the 55-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The primary task of the 317-member assembly is to facilitate inter-parliamentary dialogue.

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