Russian investigative journalist Ilya Barabanov has been named winner of the Peter Mackler Award, a prize for journalists "in countries where freedom of the press is either not guaranteed or not recognized."
The award ceremony will be held on October 22 in Washington.
Barabanov, deputy editor-in-chief of the Novoye Vremya weekly, received the award for his publication about abuse and violations in the Moscow OMON, an elite police subdivision known for "its brutal suppression of activist protestors," a statement posted on the award's website reads.
Shortly after the article was published, the Russian interior ministry conducted an inspection which did not find any violations.
The Peter Mackler Award, administered by the U.S. branch of Reporters Without Borders, was first awarded in 2009.
Its first winner was Sri Lanka's J.S. Tissainayagam, an opposition journalist who has been serving a 20-year prison sentence for inciting "acts of violence or racial or communal disharmony."
WASHINGTON, August 22 (RIA Novosti)
