ArmeniaNow Wins Again For Environmental Reporting
For the third year in a row, the bilingual Internet news portal ArmeniaNow.com won top prize in the Biodiversity Reporting Award competition for the Caucasus Region.
The first prize for 2009 was awarded to Gayane Mkrtchyan of ArmeniaNow.com for a story about a proposed gold mine that, according to some critics, posed toxic pollution hazards to water quality in Armenia’s treasured Lake Sevan. The story quoted concerns from several environmental groups that political pressure was clearing the way for the mine and ore processing facilities in the Sevan basin. The company declined to comment, but president Serzh Sargsyan pledged to defend the lake.
Two Georgian journalists won second and third prizes for stories about geologic features of Kolhketi National Park in western Georgia. Lasha Zarginava, editor-in-chief of the Poti newspaper Reziume, took second prize with a story about unique fish species in Paliastomi Lake. And Nona Kvastiani won third prize with a radio story about the unusual Ispani peat bog, which ran on Adjara Radio.
“These stories show that journalists in Georgia and Armenia are tackling more complicated stories and making them interesting to the public,” said Rob Taylor, director of ICFJ’s Science and Environment Programs.
Annual Biodiversity Reporting Award contests for the Caucasus Region have been conducted by the International Center for Journalists for the past three years as part of a program funded by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund. Under the program, ICFJ held a series of training seminars and reporting field trips for journalists from Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. The program has helped journalists in the region improve their understanding of conservation issues and their abilities to communicate those issues to the public.
First prize in the contest comes with a cash award of $1,000 cash and an engraved plaque. The top prize was won in two prior years by Arpi Harutyunyan, who was also a writer for ArmeniaNow.com. Second and third prizes confer cash prizes of $500 and $200, respectively, as well as plaques.
