For the second consecutive year Ecovarna.info has been awarded in the ‘Green Feather’ category of the Web Report clean journalism contest, which has become a tradition. After last year the story ‘Broken stones – a waste-beaten story in the present time’ grabbed the grand prize for environmental journalism in the country, this year the prestigious jury’s eyes fell on ‘Destination Waste – 2’. The investigation of the import of waste through the port of Varna by journalist and member of the Public Center for Environment and Sustainable Development, Svilena Velcheva, deserved the honorary third place this year. This put Ecovarna.info next to bTV and Capital, which also made it onto the honour’s podium. This year’s Green Feather Grand Prize went to Marin Nikolov of bTV for his piece ‘Bulgaria’s Golden Dams’. The investigation tells how emergency repairs of reservoirs have not been carried out for 7 years, although the contract was awarded to only one company and without a competition. The second place went to Rumyana Gocheva from ‘Capital’ with ‘There is nothing worse than sunny weather’.
“The Public Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development is now in its 10th year of monitoring the issue of import of waste for incineration in the country. The award shows that it is important and relevant for our society and we must continue to press the alarm about the problem,” said Ilian Iliev, one of the founders of the association.
“For the second year in a row, Green Feather showed that there are no small and big media when it comes to independent and objective journalism. ‘Destination Waste – 2’ is a continuation of ‘Destination Waste’ from 2020 and has shown that our predictions about the development and scale of the problem have come true,” commented the author of the article.
In the eighth edition of the competition, a competent and transparent assessment of the works was given by the Director General of BTA Kiril Valchev, the host of ‘120 minutes’ on bTV Svetoslav Ivanov, Nikolay Petrov, senior editor and host of the program ‘Horizon’ – BNR, Metodi Vladimirov – host and executive producer “News” in NOVA, journalist and writer Anna Zarkova, journalist and founder of the campaign ‘Vigilante of the Year’ Iva Doichinova, the editor-in-chief of Dir. Nikola Kostadinov, journalist and scriptwriter Vanya Nikolova, editor-in-chief of OFFNews.bg
Vladimir Yonchev, the chairman of the Bulgarian Association of Sports Journalists Naiden Todorov, the editor-in-chief of Manager News Irina Veleva, Evgeni Dimitrov – founder of Bulfoto Agency, Iliana Zaharieva – Corporate Communications Director at A1, and Alexander Popov – editor-in-chief of Dnes.bg. The jury this year also included Georgi Lyubenov – author and presenter of ‘The Day Begins with Georgi Lyubenov’ on BNT1, as well as Ivaylo Stanchev – editor-in-chief of Capital.
The authors of the best original materials in the last year received their prizes at a special ceremony at Event Space 2020 in Sofia. A total of 13 masters of the word were awarded in the categories ‘Society’, ‘Economy’, ‘True Stories’, ‘Culture and Art’, ‘Technology’, ‘Sport’, ‘Video Reportage’, ‘Photo Reportage’, ‘Podcast’, ‘Young Author’, “Hotspot”, ‘Green Pen’ and ‘Journalistic Mastery’.
The award ceremony was hosted by Svetla Toneva and Yavor Ralinov from the video department of Dir.bg. The event was opened by Dir.bg Operations Director Ivan Braikov.
“For another year we will present the awards, but more importantly, we will once again tell each other honestly and clearly that journalism makes sense especially when it is done clean. Over the past 8 years, the Dir.bg contest has confirmed that quality journalism is not a mirage, it exists, it breathes and fights, and as we will see tonight – it wins,” said Ivan Brikov. In the words of Dir.bg’s Director of Operations, journalists are not just chroniclers, but awakeners and sometimes saviors.
Photos: Rositsa Tsoneva
