Press Release
2010 Prize for Integrity in Journalism Awarded to Roman Shleynov, Novaya Gazeta
April 8 , 2010
New York, NY –The Paul Klebnikov Fund is pleased to announce that Roman Shleynov, Investigations Editor of the independent Russian paper, Novaya Gazeta, has been awarded the 2010 Prize for Integrity in Journalism. The award seeks to honor Paul Klebnikov's life and work by supporting the independent media in Russia through fellowship opportunities in the United States.
Mr. Shleynov, 35, joined the paper as a staff writer in 1999. He focuses on exposing corrupt relationships between businesses and government officials. In 1998, Shleynov helped uncover Russian-based producers who provide Western Europe's largest source of smuggled cigarettes. He also coordinated "Document Dilemma," a 7-nation investigation of the market for fraudulent identity papers in Eastern Europe. For his work, Shleynov won a 2008 Transparency International Integrity Award.
Shleynov's visit to New York is being co-sponsored by The Harriman Institute at Columbia University as part of a new initiative called The Klebnikov Russian Civil Society Program. The Harriman Institute will host an evening with Shleynov on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 at 6:00 pm on the challenges of investing in Russia. Anne Garrels, Former Foreign Correspondent for National Public Radio, will moderate the discussion at The Columbia School of Journalism's Lecture Hall.
"Some Russian public officials and plenty entrepreneurs run their companies and connected businesses abroad, sometimes exporting scandals to Europe, and to the United States," says Shleynov.
For his work, Shleynov is also being honored as this year's recipient of the Alfred Friendly Press Fellowship, a Washington, DC-based non-profit program designed to provide cultural and professional exchanges for international journalists.
While here, Shleynov hopes to gain additional skills managing cross-border investigations and learn how journalists use the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.
"The Paul Klebnikov Fund is proud to celebrate and support Roman Shleynov's ongoing commitment to making Russia a more open society. We hope Roman's visit to the United States will expand his overseas contacts as well as enhance his awareness of the efforts of journalists and good-government groups to promote transparency in the United States," said Musa Klebnikov, Executive Director of the Fund. "When journalists of Roman's caliber are able to spend time in the US meeting the guardians of our civil society it serves to further motivate and encourage these brave individuals in their work when they return to Russia."
