Lyubov Barabashova, a freelance correspondent for Radio Liberty in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, has been awarded the Pyotr Weil Free Russian Journalism Scholarship for 2023.
She has been collaborating with Radio Liberty since 2016, the author of several dozen articles on political and social issues, about the daily life of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and the Sakhalin Region, published on the websites of Radio Liberty and its regional project Sibir.Realii. In November 2022, the Russian Ministry of Justice added Barabashova to the list of “foreign agents” media outlets. She considers this decision unfair.
The Pyotr Weil Scholarship “Free Russian Journalism” was established in 2009 in memory of the famous writer and longtime employee of the Russian Service in the year of his 60th birthday. The winner of the scholarship is the best freelance correspondent of Radio Liberty, according to the editors. In previous years, correspondents of Radio Liberty in Kyiv, Crimea, New York, Sochi, St. Petersburg, Kirov, Saratov, Tomsk, Ulyanovsk, Chelyabinsk, Pskov and Kaliningrad regions became laureates of the Petr Weil scholarship.
- The Russian service of Radio Liberty was opened in 1953. The Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty media corporation, which includes the Russian Service, sees its task in promoting democratic values and institutions by reaching out to audiences in countries where press freedom is restricted by the authorities or has not yet become a norm in public life.
- Despite the political censorship and blocking of Radio Liberty websites imposed by the Russian authorities after the start of a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, in 2022 the websites of Radio Liberty and its projects registered over 161 million visits, this is the best result in the history of the editorial office. The Sibir.Realii website registers about 800,000 visits every month.
