OCCRP Journalist Khadija Ismayilova from Azerbaijan was recognized by the German ZEIT Foundation as an activist for independent media and freedom of expression. Ismayilova is one of five recipients of the Gerd Bucerius Prizes for Free Press in Eastern Europe.
“The journalist Khadija Ismayilova from Baku is one of the most important investigative journalists in Azerbaijan,” the foundation said in a news release. “In various newspapers and in their own radio show she talks about corruption, abuse of power and human rights violations in the country.”
Ismayilova serves as OCCRP’s regional coordinator and editor for the Caucasus. She recently collaborated with two other OCCRP reporters on an investigation into how companies owned by relatives and friends of Egypt’s former leader Hosni Mubarak came to be owned by seemingly unconnected individuals from Azerbaijan.
This year’s winners also include two magazines and three journalists from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The awards ceremony takes place on 24 May 2012 in Hamburg.
