The final judging event of the human rights contest for journalism students and the contest award ceremony took place today. The contest aims to promote high ethical standards and human rights values in journalistic education.

The contest’s organising committee received more than 170 works from students from 25 universities and one journalism study club. The student works were submitted in three categories – graphic works, videos, and essays – and covered topics such as gender equality, inclusiveness, prevention of hate speech, civic activism, and freedom of speech.

Welcoming the participants of the contest, UNDP Resident Representative to Ukraine Dafina Gercheva stressed that crises such as COVID-19, which is a global, deadly and multifaceted emergency, further exacerbate complicated development challenges, push people back to poverty, widen the inequality gap, and undermine democracy and human rights.

“The world will get through this crisis, but only if we act now, together and in solidarity. All humanity needs to fight back, and eradicate all forms of violence and discrimination,” Gercheva said.

The contest was initiated by the Institute of Journalism of the Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University, the ZMINA Human Rights Centre, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine.

There were two rounds of evaluation of the students’ work. First, a selection panel of the editors of Zmina.info,  the team of Real Stories Production, and UNDP experts assessed all of the works according to criteria such as professionalism, substance, genre compliance, headline, relevance to the topic of the contest, authenticity, significance and argumentation, language sensitivity, fluency, and persuasiveness.

During the second round, a jury of human rights defenders and media experts nominated their top seven stories. The points awarded by the jury to each work were summed up to select the best works. 

The human rights contest for journalism students was supported by the Ukrainian Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova. As part of the contest, the commissioner gave a Special Award in each category of work.

Summarizing the results of the contest, the Head of Board of the ZMINA Human Rights Centre Tetiana Pechonchyk stressed the importance of journalism being based on human rights values.

“Human rights are universal, the bedrock on which strong democratic countries are built,” Pechonchyk said. “Ukrainian journalists need to be committed to human rights values to set up high journalistic standards. Many articles of the Journalistic Code of Ethics are based on human rights values such as non-discrimination, respect for privacy, and children’s rights.”

The following are the contest winners:

GRAPHIC WORK

First place: Yuliia Krishtapovych, Maksym Bohachov – Simon Kuznets Kharkiv National University of Economics;

Second place (joint): Anastasia Cherkashyna –­­­ Simon Kuznets Kharkiv National University of Economics;

Second place (joint): Olha Holub, Viktoria Sarycheva – Kamianets-Podilskyi Ivan Ohiienko National University;

Third place: Anastasiya Tolchenykova ­­– Zaporizhia National University;

Special Award from the Human Rights Commissioner– Anastasia Cherkashyna –­­­ Simon Kuznets Kharkiv National University of Economics

VIDEO/AUDIO WORK

First place: Vladyslav Pustovit, Adalina Sysak, Yelyzaveta Buriak, Vladyslav Sova, Oleksiy Kugit – Institute of Journalism of the Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University;

Second place (joint): Valeriya Pastushenko – Institute of Journalism of the Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University;

Second place (joint): Anastasiya Kozko, Yuriy-Luka Savinkh, Veronika Riepina, Mykhailo Voronov – Institute of Journalism of the Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University;

Third place: Liudmyla Savych – Institute of Journalism of the Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University;

Special Award from the Human Rights Commissioner: Artem Novikov, Anzhelika Muzychenko, Karina Averianova – Bohdan Khmelnytsky Cherkasy National University;

ARTICLES

First place: Iryna Vetlianchuk – Lesya Ukrainka Eastern European National University

Second place: Daria Fedorenko – Volodymyr Vynnychenko Central Ukrainian State Pedagogical University

Third place: Daria Batsko – Creativity Centre for Youths and Children No. 5, Tochka Zoru (Point of View) study club, Kharkiv;

Special Award from the Human Rights Commissioner: Oleksiy Kripko – Zaporizhia National University;

Background

The Human Rights Contest for journalism students is a joint initiative of the Institute of Journalism of the Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University, the ZMINA Human Rights Centre, and the Human Rights for Ukraine project, implemented by the UNDP in Ukraine with financial support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.