COLLEAGUES

The ceremony of the presentation of the regular (second) annual journalistic prize of the YPC took place in the newly open restaurant "Zangu" on December 29, 1999. This time the Embassies of the USA, Great Britain, Germany and France joined the YPC. They presented the winners with special prizes.

The number of the laureates increased nearly twice as much if compared with the last year. However, the winners’ names were placed on secret list to the last moment, like then. The judges - the Editor-in-Chief of the "Hayatsk Yerevanits" magazine Valeriy Aydinian, the YPC expert Mesrop Haroutiunian, the Chairwoman of the Journalists Union of Armenia Astghik Gevorkian, the Executive Director of the National Television of Armenia Tigran Naghdalian and the Chairman of the YPC Commission on Protection of Freedom of Speech Vigen Sargsian - held their ground with a sly smile.

The winner in the "For the publicist articles" nomination was the publicist writer Grigor Janikian, the vice Editor-in-Chief of the "Hai Zinvor" weekly, "who made a special contribution to the development of this genre in the Armenian journalism".

The laureates of the "For the best series of the films in the genre of the journalistic investigation" Edik Baghdassarian (the Director of the "Versus" studio) and the creative group decided to dispose of the award in their own way. They were presented with a TV set. It was the seventh one that they received after they had shown their film about the Goris jail in the beginning of the last year, and they also sent it to the prisoners.

In the "For the best coverage of the October 27 events" nomination the following journalists were named: Narineh Dilbarian ("Azg" daily), Anna Israelian ("Aravot" daily), and Marina Mkrtchian ("Golos Armenii" newspaper). Gohar Sargsian ("Respublica Armenia" daily) and Rousan Khachatrian (National Television of Armenia) won in the "For the worthy conduct in the extreme situation" nomination. Valeriy Aydinian wished "our women who behaved like a man" to be in the future as brave and womanly as they are. Narineh Dilbarian also got a special prize from the British Embassy. In addition to Gohar Sargsian’s premium, a month after presenting her the prize, the Embassy of Germany decided to award her travel to Berlin for EXPO-2000.

The "A1+" and "AR" TV companies were marked out "For the work in the extreme situation". The stations mentioned also got special awards from the Embassies of the USA and France: a fortnight training in Boston for a journalist of "AR" and a trip to Paris for "A1+".

Shavarsh Kocharian, the Chairman of the RA NA Standing Committee on Science, Education, Culture and Youth Issues, was awarded with the special prize "For energetic work with the mass media and respectful attitude towards journalistic activities". Naira Gevorkian, the representative of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Armenia, presented him with a valuable book on behalf of the German Embassy, and the representatives of the YPC gave him a rim with no glasses. Let him decide through what kind of glasses he would see the press in the future.

Tigran Hakopian, the Director of the Department of Information and Publications to RA Government, presented the Radio Liberty Yerevan Office with the prize "For efficient and impartial coverage of the Armenian events in foreign media outlets". While giving the award, he confessed: "I banned the station’s broadcasting in 1994 but I couldn’t run counter to the society’s requirement in the future and corrected my mistake in time..." The administration of the "Zangu" restaurant also gave the Radio Liberty a particular prize: an invitation card for the New Year show.

Irina ZOHRABIAN

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