The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) awarded Svetlana Prokopyeva, a journalist from Pskov who was convicted of justifying terrorism, the International Press Freedom Awards. This is reported on the CPJ’s website.
— Like brave and committed journalists everywhere, CPJ’s honorees set out to report the news without fear or favor for the benefit of their communities, their country, and the world. They understood that they would confront powerful forces, enemies of the truth, who would try to stop them from doing their work, — said Joel Simon, the CPJ's executive director.
In addition to Prokopyeva, journalists from Bangladesh, Iran, and Nigeria won the award. The winners will be awarded on November 19 at the CPJ’s annual charitable event which will be held online.
Journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva from Pskov was fined for half a million rubles on July 6 in the case of justifying terrorism. According to investigators, she publicly justified terrorism in her op-ed about the possible reasons for the terrorist attack committed by a 17-year-old anarchist in 2018 in the building of the FSB Directorate for Arkhangelsk Oblast. The Prosecutor's office demanded sentencing Prokopyeva to six years in prison and banning her from journalism for four years.
After the trial, the journalist announced that she was going to appeal against the judgement. She suggested raising money not for her fine, but to help political prisoners in Russia.
