(ANSA) - SOFIA - Victor Mosneag from Moldavia in the section "Professional Journalists" and Yevheniia Motorevska from Ukraina in the section "Young Professional Journalists" won the "CEI SEEMO Award for Outstanding Merits in Investigative Journalism 2017", organised by Central European Initiative (CEI) and the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), in special partnership with the Media Program South East Europe of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS).

Victor Mosneag, an investigative reporter at weekly newspaper Ziarul de Garda in Moldova, has been awarded for his excellent work on reporting corruption, transparency and rule of law issues in Moldova. In his 9 years of experience as an investigative reporter, Mosneag has been covering many cases about highest corrupt officials with a big impact on Moldavian society. His series of articles outline corruption in the justice sector showing the assets and the official incomes of judges and the huge differences between legal salaries and the de facto properties. After Victor's publications, the Government has started many investigations against corrupt judges. Yevheniia Motorevska, a young journalist from the weekly investigation TV-programme "Slidstvo.Info" in Ukraine, has been awarded for her successful work in discovering crimes and corruption in the Ukrainian government and law enforcement system. Ukrainian officials have opened several criminal cases based on information, which Yevheniia published in her stories.

In one of her investigations, she discovered the process of drugs trafficking in Ukrainian prisons presenting many details and proof about how the system works and about the officials involved in the illegal processes.

Victor Mosneag and Yevheniia Motorevska officially received the awards offered by the CEI (4,000 EUR and 1,000 EUR respectively) on the occasion of the South East Europe Media Forum (SEEMF) in Sofia, Bulgaria, on 27-28 November 2017.

A Special Mention has been assigned to Marina Constantinoiu, editor-in-chief at miscareaderezistenta.ro in Romania. She is a well-known journalist with an extensive experience in implementing huge investigative and research projects. Over the last two years, she has published more than 50 articles based on archives of security services. Constantinoiu and her team have got access to the archives of the ex-communist Secret Services of Romania and East Germany, Securitate and STASI, and discovered exclusive documents proving the killings at the Romanian borders, having victims not only among Romanians, but also among foreign citizens, especially East Germans.

The independent international jury of CEI SEEMO Award received this year 22 nominations, from 10 countries. It is composed by Lindita ela (Albania), journalist at the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN); Alina Radu (Moldova), director at Ziarul de Garda; Anna Babinets (Ukraine), editor of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and co-founder of Slidstvo.info; Matteo Finco, (Italy) Freelance journalist, Ossigeno per l'Informazione; Saa Lekovi (Croatia), investigative journalist, trainer and media advisor in SEE countries, president of Investigative Journalism Center, president of Croatian Journalists' Association. The overall Award coordination was managed by Barbara Fabro (CEI) and Oliver Vujovic (SEEMO).