Skopje, 21 March 2023 (MIA) – Investigating Reporting Lab (IRL) for their story “Bad Blood”, journalist Kristina Atovska for her reporting on the war in Ukraine and Arbnora Memeti for the photograph “Rain of Carcinogenic Materials in Tetovo” were the recipients of the 2022 Nikola Mladenov awards presented by the Macedonian Institute for Media (MIM) on Tuesday.

The IRL team that worked on the investigative story “Bad Blood” said that they faced great challenges.

 “This was one of the most difficult periods in our lives and it didn’t end when the episode aired, in fact this period is still ongoing, because we are a target for orchestrated attacks and attempts to discredit us on a daily basis. So, a big recognition like this means a lot to us, because this episode was exceptionally difficult to prove, it was difficult to produce and it showed us that the citizens are ready to fight with us, especially those citizens in the institutions who saw us as a partner. I would like to say that an even more difficult fight awaits us in the future and I am very glad that we have this support,” said Denica Chadikovska from IRL.

Kristina Atovska, who received the award for a most innovative journalistic product for her focus on the war in Ukraine, expressed her hope that her persistence will one day be a motivation for other generations.

 “In my student days, when I took courses on war journalism, my colleagues said that I am wasting my time and money, that this sector does not exist in our country. When the war broke out and I said I will go to Ukraine, they told me it’s impossible, don’t dream of it, it won’t happen. When I came back from Ukraine, my friends said all your war journalism colleagues return home well-off, while you are back full of debts; you see it’s not worth it. But it is, it’s worth it from a different aspect, tomorrow, after five, ten, seventeen years, some child will emerge with a wish, with an idea to do something and will face the same society that will say this doesn’t exist, it’s impossible, and that child will have an example and will be able to see that nothing is impossible. If you want to do something, you will find a way, if you don’t want to do something, then you will find an excuse. I will be very pleased if I can inspire a single child some day,” said Atovska.

Photojournalist Memeti said that more thought should be given to education and greater security for media workers when it comes to reporting from dangerous areas.

 “This photograph was taken last year, when Tetovo was struck by a new ecological catastrophe. There was a 14-hour rain of carcinogenic materials from a factory that was on fire in Tetovo. Apart from the firefighters, we, the media workers, were also most exposed to the dangerous materials. I am saying this because it’s high time we started thinking about education on reporting from such areas,” said Memeti.

There were 16 journalists in the category for best investigative story, 18 topics in the most innovative journalistic product category and 27 photos in the best photojournalism category.

The Award Commission consisted of Verica Jordanova, President of MIM’s managing board, Arta Tahiri, editor at TV Alsat M, Prof. Dr. Marina Tuneva, photojournalist Robert Atanasovski and Biljana Petkovska, the director of MIM.

The Commission’s assessment is that journalists have been working thoroughly and with dedication in the past year, producing quality investigations that uncover and analyze topics and issues of high interest for the public, and inciting institutional conclusions for the cases which contained irregularities. ad/nn/