The Kyiv Post investigative journalist Anna Myroniuk has made it to the final stage of Thomson Foundation’s annual journalism competition, Young Journalist Award, that celebrates emerging journalistic talents from around the world.
Chosen out of 200 entrants from 55 countries, Myroniuk is now competing with the Peruvian journalist Martín Leandro Camacho and Nigerian Kabir Adejumo.
On Nov. 23, the judges will reveal the winner of the competition but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, London’s ceremony will be held online.
The Ukrainian Myroniuk was honored by the Thomson Foundation for her “impactful forensic reporting amid constraints in Ukraine,” according to the jury.
At the Kyiv Post, Myroniuk reports extensively about political corruption and human rights violations, among other issues.
Kyiv Post staff writer Anna Myroniuk asks President Volodymyr Zelensky about his ties to notorious Odesa Mayor Gennady Trukhanov, accused by critics of running the Black Sea port city of 1 million people as a personal fiefdom. (Volodymyr Petrov)
The Thomson Foundation has recognized her three major investigative stories and praised Myroniuk’s style of presentation, calling it “particularly grabbing.”
In the transnational investigation of the tobacco giant Philip Morris International that Myroniuk and 10 worldwide media partners conducted in May 2020, she revealed how the company used the coronavirus crisis as a commercial opportunity to promote its tobacco-heating devices.
Myroniuk’s two-part series titled “Losing Our Land” tells the story of Ukrainians forced out of Crimea by Russian occupants.
Another of Myroniuk’s stories noted by the jury covers attempts of the Kremlin-backed separatist group “Donetsk People’s Republic” to assert its claim to statehood and international legal recognition.
All stories were equally complicated in terms of reporting and “that is probably the reason why they attracted the attention of the international jury,” Myroniuk said.
Before joining the Kyiv Post in September 2019, Myroniuk freelanced for the newspaper from London where she was studying after winning the Chevening Scholarship.
Having years of journalistic experience in Ukraine, Myroniuk knows how challenging the work of investigative journalists is in the country.
Due to the ubiquitous bureaucracy, she often couldn’t get the necessary information and after releasing her stories Myroniuk wasn’t always feeling safe.
That is why entering the final stage of the Thomson Foundation’s journalism competition is important for her.
“It means that my work is recognized and the issues I cover matter,” Myroniuk said.
Judges of the award look for stories that are “revelatory, prompt public debate and have the potential to lead to, positive change in society.”
