Mikhail Afanasyev, the imprisoned editor in chief of the Novy fokus (New Focus) online newspaper covering the Siberian region of Khakassia, has been given a 2024 Free Media Award for journalistic bravery. The chief of the Center for Media Rights, Galina Arapova, accepted the award on Afanasyev's behalf at a ceremony in Oslo on September 17. Afanasyev was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison on a charge of discrediting Russia's armed forces after reporting about the refusal of local riot police officers to participate in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Siberia.Realities, click here.
Imprisoned Siberian Journalist Afanasyev Honored With 2024 Free Media Award
Journalist Mikhail Afanasyev waits in a defendant's cage in a courtroom in Abakan, Russia, in 2023.