‘Meduza’ correspondent Ivan Golunov receives award named for assassinated journalist Anna Politkovskaya

Meduza investigative journalist Ivan Golunov has received the Kamerton Prize, which honors the late Anna Politkovskaya. Golunov received the prize in Moscow on September 8, the International Day of Journalists’ Solidarity.

The Kamerton Prize was established in 2013, seven years after Politkovskaya was murdered for her incisive investigative journalism. It is awarded to journalists who show professional skill, courage, an insistence on freedom of speech, honesty, civic responsibility, and empathy. Last year, the prize was awarded to Kirill Vyshinsky, the imprisoned editor-in-chief of a Russian state outlet in Ukraine. The Ukrainian government recently released Vyshinsky as part of a prisoner exchange.

Golunov has also endured political pressure in the last year: In June, he was falsely accused of attempted drug distribution in a case Golunov said was a form of revenge for his investigations on the Moscow funeral industry. The journalist was released several days later after an unprecedented solidarity campaign.