The Georgiy Gongadze Prize was established by the Ukrainian PEN in partnership with the Alumni Association of the Kyiv-Mohyla Business School and the publication "Ukrainian Pravda". It aims to support journalists who are not afraid of challenges, find innovative ways to convey information, promote the implementation of liberal reforms in Ukraine, and remain true to professional principles and values.

This year, 21 Ukrainian journalists were included in the long list of nominees for the Georgiy Gongadze Prize. The laureate of 2019 was journalist, historian, editor-in-chief of the online publication "Historical Truth" and the eponymous TV magazine on ZIK TV channel, as well as the founder of the Press Archive Museum Vakhtang Kipiani. The award was presented to him during a solemn ceremony on May 21. On this day, Georgiy Gongadze would have turned 50 years old. The ceremony was attended by Georgiy's wife, journalist, editor-in-chief, and head of the Ukrainian service of "Voice of America" Myroslava Gongadze.

The Chapter that determined the laureate, besides Myroslava Gongadze, included Andriy Kurkov (president of the Ukrainian PEN, writer), Oleksandr Savruk (dean of the Kyiv-Mohyla Business School), Olena Prytula (journalist, co-founder and owner of the publication "Ukrainian Pravda"), Mykola Demchenko (head of the Alumni Association of the Kyiv-Mohyla Business School), Yevhen Hlibovytsky (strategy expert, head of the expert company pro.mova, member of the Nestor Group, member of the supervisory board of Public Broadcasting), Alla Lazareva (journalist, translator, correspondent for the magazine "Ukrainian Week" in France), Larysa Denysenko (journalist, writer, human rights activist), Serhiy Plokhiy (professor of history, director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University).

Patrons who supported the Prize included graduates of kmbs Mykola Sushko, Dmytro Chernov, Lyudmyla Perebiynos, Maksym Dyadyk, Mykola Demchenko and Olha Mishurovska, Oleh Brusilovskyi, Oleksandr Tkachuk, Roman Kvashenko, Serhiy Dulepov, Yaroslav Volkovetskyi, the Brunner, Viknyanskyi, and Mishchenko families.

The Georgiy Gongadze Prize is the first project of the kmbs Alumni Association aimed at social transformation in Ukraine. The Kyiv-Mohyla Business School has long and successfully collaborated with PEN, and supporting the prize for journalists became a natural continuation of this partnership. After all, innovation, striving for development, honesty, and fidelity to the profession reflect the worldview and values of kmbs.

The First Laureate of the Georgiy Gongadze Prize