RFE/RL Moldovan Service Journalist Natalia Sergheev and RFE/RL video producer Alexander Blumberg have been awarded the 2016 Young Adami Media Prize for Cultural Diversity in Eastern Europe for their short film Generation Emigration.
The film, which aired on Moldova’s popular TV 1 channel in September, explores the growing phenomenon of mass youth emigration from Moldova, tracking the stories of three young people in search of a better life elsewhere in Europe.
Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland and OSCE Representative for Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic presented the award at a gala dinner in Kyiv on November 24. Mijatovic said, “This prize puts focus on the importance of free media in the region and the important role it plays in informing people on issues of public interest, not least on integration and cultural diversity.”
It is an acknowledgement of “the extraordinary work of a young aspiring journalist from Moldova attentive to social challenges and changes,” said RFE/RL Moldovan Service Director Oana Serafim, and proof, citing the collaboration between former RFE/RL Vaclav Havel Journalism Fellow Sergheev and Blumberg, an American, that “talent doesn´t have borders.”
The Adami Media Prize, now in its second year, recognizes outstanding films, videos, and websites from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine that promote cultural diversity and peaceful co-existence.