Myroslava Gongadze, TV anchor and reporter for VOA’s Ukrainian Service, has won numerous awards for her accomplishments as a journalist, including her reporting on the eve of the 2004 Orange Revolution, and as a champion of democracy and independent media.
Gongadze, who came to the United States as a political refugee in 2001, has gained an international reputation for her support of press freedom in countries of the former Soviet Union. She is the widow of Georgy Gongadze, an investigative reporter who was allegedly murdered by government police in Ukraine in 2000. After her husband’s death, Gongadze formed the Gongadze Foundation, an internationally-recognized organization dedicated to protecting journalistic rights and freedoms, providing support to the families of journalists killed in the line of duty, and promoting the investigation of her husband’s murder.
She will be a guest speaker at the following National Press Club event:
Caught Up in Politics: East European Media and Plurality of News The Media Sustainability Index 2012 for Europe & Eurasia
Presentation of Findings
Monday, April 30, 2012, 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.
National Press Club, Holeman Lounge
529 14th Street, NW, 13th Floor Washington, DC
Featuring Leon Morse, managing editor of the Media Sustainability Index
With introductory remarks by Larry Garber, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Policy, Planning and Learning Bureau, USAID And comments from Voice of America's Myroslava Gongadze and Arsen Kharatyan.
Over the past two years, West European media conglomerates that made investments in Eastern Europe have sold some of these assets, which in turn have been bought by local tycoons. Often owing their wealth to political connections, these new media owners changed relatively neutral editorial policies to favor political factions. Elsewhere in Eastern Europe, on-going political control over the media has stifled the flow of information during crucial elections and stymied investigative reporting or news coverage critical of governments in power.
IREX’s 2012 Media Sustainability Index for Europe & Eurasia studies the media sector in 21 countries of the region, measuring the media sector’s performance in professional journalism, plurality of news, freedom of speech, business management, and supporting institutions. The Index provides both scores based on the opinions of professionals from each country and in-depth textual analysis based upon discussions with the study participants. In its 11th year, the Index gives longitudinal depth to studies of the media in transitional countries in Europe & Eurasia, plus studies for the Middle East (since 2005) and Africa (since 2007).
Leon Morse, managing editor of the Media Sustainability Index, will give a brief overview of the 2012 findings, and discuss trends such as politicization of media in Europe & Eurasia and the impact this is having on the media sector’s role as the Fourth Estate. He will also discuss the impact the Index has in countries included in the study.
Introductions will be made by Larry Garber, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Policy, Planning and Learning Bureau, USAID. Comments will also be provided by Myroslava Gongadze and Arsen Kharatyan from Voice of America, who will provide their perspectives on the state of the media in their own countries.
Please join the discussion on Twitter by using the hashtag #MSIEE.
Contact Kyle B. King at the VOA Public Relations office at kking@voanews.com for more information about interviews with VOA staff.
