Alla Konstantinova

Alla Konstantinova was selected for the 2023 Shortlist with She lost consciousness as it was happening and she’s actually grateful she did.” What we know about the rapes perpetrated in Ukraine by Russian soldiers.

Alla Konstantinova (34) before the start of the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine lived in a small Russian town called Petrozavodsk. She worked as a regional journalist and was a reporter of at small media outlet Mediazona focused on human rights affairs and police brutality. In September 2019, she wrote an article for Mediazonа about regular practice of torturing prisoners at local Correctional Colony No. 9 Petrozavodsk. Konstantinova was harassed by the prison warden and received threats from one of the colony officers during her investigation. That story was selected as runner-up for the 2020 European Press Prize The Investigative Reporting Award https://www.europeanpressprize.com/article/prisoners-of-a-penal-colony-tell-of-torture/. The head of the Colony No. 9 and his deputy were convicted only in February 2023. They were sentenced to seven years in prison.

In March 2022 Konstantinova left Russia because of the anti-war stance and possible threat of persecution, now she is in Lithuania. A month later she was included on the «foreign agents» list compiled by Russia’s Justice Ministry. In Russia, the term «foreign agent» is tantamount «traitor» or «spy». Konstantinova refuses to comply with the requirements of the Ministry of Justice and keeps writing about the war in Ukraine.

Ilir Gashi

Ilir Gashi was selected for the 2023 Shortlist with The alternative Balkan postal system.

Ilir Gashi is a journalist, activist, and media development expert based in Belgrade, Serbia. He started working in journalism at the age of 14, initially as a reviewer of computer games. He quit journalism writing in 2002 to initiate the massive human rights/legal literacy program “U pravu si!” [You are right / You have the right] used by hundreds of thousands of school students and citizens in Serbia over the following decade. 

Between 2014 and 2017, Ilir led the Slavko Curuvija Foundation, an organization working in media freedom, sustainability of local media and safety of journalists in Serbia. There he created multiple initiatives, including “Cenzolovka”, a popular portal reporting on all issues relating to freedom of media, and a School of Digital Journalism for young local media journalists. In 2017 he co-initiated the Group for Freedom of Media, gathering hundreds of NGOs, independent media, journalists, activists and citizens to jointly fight the government’s efforts to control the media in Serbia.

Currently, Ilir works with journalists, local media outlets and community-based NGOs all across the Balkans, to help them tell their stories more powerfully. His frequent trips between Belgrade and Pristina in the past couple of years led him to discoveries of people and stories that inspired him to start writing again.