site.btaAnti-Corruption Fund Honours Journalists Exposing Corruption

The Anti-Corruption Fund (ACF) announced Friday the winning of its Red Line 2023 competition that honours journalists who expose corruption. The five winners were announced at a ceremony in Sofia's Odeon cinema.

They were selected from the record-setting 56 nominees, said ACF.

Genka Shikerova of Free Europe received the special prize for courage and persistence. In 2023 alone, she has done 12 journalistic investigations on topics that are high on the agenda of the Bulgarian society, including vote buying. 

Veronika Dimitrova of Nova Broadcasting Group received the award for investigative journalism for a story exposing an extortion scheme targeting the families of deceased people.

Bogdana Lazarova of the Bulgarian National Television took the award in the Rule of Law category for a report about 200,000 Bulgarians without ID.

Emilia Dimitrova-Dankova of Sevlievo Online, which is part of the regional journalism network "For the Truth", received the award for regional journalism.

Elitsa Simeonova of Free Europe was distinguished in the Young Journalist category for her work on a story about air pollution in the town of Galabovo. 

The winners were selected by a jury including Svetoslav Terziev, a columnist in Sega daily and journalism professor at St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia, Venelin Petkov, a member of the ACF board, Tatiana Vaksberg, editor-in-chief of the Sofia bureau of Free Europe (who abstained from voting in the categories where journalists from her media organizations were among the nominees), lawyer Sofia Razboynikova, a member of the Board of Directors of the Bulgarian Lawyers for Human Rights Foundation, and Vesela Todorova, Public Awareness Coordinator at ACF.