Відбулась підсумкова конференція у проекті "Школа журналістських розслідувань"

This final event of the project was held in December in Dnipro. It was implemented in format of an Open Space and gathered participants of previous trainings that were conducted from July to November in Kharkiv, Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia.

Media representatives and activists met another professional journalist-investigator – Alexander Kurbatov. During event, the following topics were discussed: threats to the life and health of investigators, legal aspects of publications, threats of lawsuits, attempts to discredit the media and the tradition of ignoring investigations’ results by protagonists and law enforcement agencies.

Much interest of participants was sparked by the simulation game, where journalists analysed information from the standpoint of anti-heroes and tried to disprove their own investigation. Together with facilitator they overlooked and analysed famous resonance investigations, such as "Corruption in Ukrainian football: An Investigation on a Fiscal Monopoly from FFU" or "Hospital-Ghost" about a military hospital worth $8 million without proper medical equipment.

During event, all participants received certificates of completion of the educational program. Four best investigators were awarded with prizes and honourable certificates. The winners were personally congratulated by the Vice-Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany, Mr. Peter Schmahl.

The first place in competition took Lyudmyla Yavorska with her TV-article "Humanitarian aid with a secret" for Channel 12 (Volyn region), as well as for texts "How Volyn's "benefactors" make money on second-hand" and "The most humanitarian aid is imported by a charitable foundation without director and office" on the portal "Volyn 24".

Second place was won by Olga Kyrylova for investigation "42 million within a year and a half: how entrepreneurs close to mayor of the front-line town Pokrovskyi win profitable tenders", published on the informational agency "Vchasno".

Third place was awarded to Grygoriy Sergienko for the cycle of articles about swimming-pool in Kherson State University, published in online-newspaper Hryvnia: "Right people" everywhere: does Kherson university laundering budget in the swimming-pool?".

The prize "Readers' sympathies" was received by Oleksandr Pylypenko, who was the most active investigator of the project and presented several quality materials: "Who does Berdyansk media holding works for?", "Berdyansk Deputy Ponomarev’s family seize the land", "Directors above the law: why Berdyansk authorities violate labour law", and "How the most influential politicians of Zaporizhzhya receive and spend their finances".

We would also like to note the other media materials of our competition, which impressed us the most:

Roman Kolyukhov "Corruption on renovation of customs post "Ustylug" for "Volyn 24" news portal.

Anastasia Komendantova "History of one plant in Sumy region", TV channel "Sumy Region Social Television".

Lilia Yashchenko "Land fraud: how to lose a land plot without even knowing it" for "Fakty ICTV".

Anton Svetlichny "9 years of court’s inactivity: who will answer for the girl's death in car accident?" also for "Fakty ICTV"

Anastasia Bobrova "The deputy of Polonium district council received 900 thousand hryvnia for improvement of housing conditions", web-site "Actualno"

Oksana Orsach "Budget” PR: whom Nikolaev regional administration saves money on advertisements", her second material in the frames of the project.

Daria Mizikina "Godfather schemes: Who builds in Dnipro illegally" - TV plot.

Yuriy Lobachev "New personnel of Kherson regional Administration: will Gordeyev's man govern infrastructure?" and "Who owns the alternative power industry of Kherson region, articles for "Hryvna" outlet.

Lilia Virevkina "To some people war is disaster, to some – a kindly mother, or Stolen hope for housing", web-portal "Conflicts and Law".

We are sincerely grateful to all those who joined the organization of the event and to the Consulate General of German Republic for the support.

Many thanks to Oleksandr Kurbatov, who exemined more than 50 materials from all our participants and provided an expert assessment for the competition. We also thank investigative journalists Yevhenia Motorevska, Maria Zemlyanska and Maksym Opanasenko, who educated journalists, bloggers and activists from August to November.

The event was organized within the "Investigative Journalism – the Arrowhead of Transparency" project in cooperation with a German organization "Europäische Medien Initiative e.V." using the German Federal Foreign Office resources.