The agency handed out €1,500 awards to 10 investigative journalists and prizes of €1,000 to the authors of 12 "outstanding" media reports last week as part of the 2024 Shuki Award project.

Estonian Ambassador to Georgia Marge Mardisalu-Kahar, speaking at the closing event of the media project in Tbilisi, said a free press is the backbone of democracy.

"In Estonia, the public media criticizes the government without fearing the consequences. I hope Georgian journalists can also move in this direction," sh said in a statement.

Winning stories focused on corruption at the local and national levels, the hypocrisy of government politicians and their collusion with Russian oligarchs, employment problems in rural areas, and the funding of para-athletes. 

Shuki Award jury member Zviad Koridze said that although journalists are not always valued, the press has an irreplaceable role in society.

"Corruption is a particularly important topic at the moment, and the role of the press is to bring all the facts to the public," said Koridze.

"The quality level of stories by local journalists was high, and if we can continue in the same spirit, we will be able to fulfill the role of the government watchdog even better."

Georgian media faces numerous obstacles, such as restricted freedom of expression, censorship, lack of professionalism, and unstable funding sources, ESTDEV said.

The project, implemented in cooperation with the Estonian Association of Journalists and Go Group Media, supports Georgian journalists who, despite the challenges, have factually and ethically covered topics important to society.

The agency also organized a study trip to Estonia for Georgian journalists.

ESTDEV's program manager for Democracy and the Rule of Law, Eva-Maria Liimets said Estonia wants to help raise the general quality of journalism in Georgia and to motivate journalists to maintain independence when reporting.

"Both our meetings and the recent analysis of the Baltic Media Center confirm that international scholarship programs help independent media to function and strengthen developing democracies. This is especially relevant for investigative journalism," she said.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!