OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan honours best journalistic and artistic work on environmental topics

TASHKENT, 16 December 2014 – The OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan today honored journalists in an award ceremony to recognize the best journalistic pieces highlighting environmental challenges.

More than 150 materials from 31 contestants were submitted for the 2014 national contest. Prizes were awarded in two categories. The winner of the best radio/TV piece was Azizbek Kattayev from the Toshkent television channel for his coverage of water pollution in Uzbekistan. The winner of the prize for best press and/or internet publication was Dinara Chirkova of the Narodnoye Slovo newspaper for her series of articles on the Aral Sea.

The OSCE Project Co-ordinator also awarded a prize to Valeriya Fomicheva for the best children’s drawing on the topic of the ecology of a town. Valeria submitted two drawings for the contest, which were entitled ‘A Horrible Dream’ and ‘Don’t Step on Your Future’, where she depicted the environmental threats faced by the city of Tashkent. Nargis Kasimova won the prize for the best material on an agricultural topic and this was awarded by ICARDA, the global agricultural research centre.

The national contest and the award ceremony in Tashkent were organized by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan together with the State Committee for Nature Protection and its publishing house Chinor ENK.

“Bringing more openness into society is one of the key priorities of Uzbekistan’s government and journalists play an important role in this respect. Therefore, for the OSCE Project Coordinator in Uzbekistan it is a great pleasure to be partners in projects which aim at developing professional eco-journalism in Uzbekistan and at the same time raise public awareness of environmental issues,” said Ambassador György Szabó, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan.

The national contest in 2014 was held for the fourth year in a row.