For outstanding reporting by a Russian journalist who displays courage, insight, balanced yet aggressive reporting, and independence of thought
YEAR: 2003
AWARD NAME: The Artyom Borovik Award 2003
RECIPIENT: Natalya Merkulova-Shindyaeva
AFFILIATION: Creative Group KA-Film for TV Angara
HONORED WORK: “The Cage”
Merkulova and her colleagues Andrei Kaminsky and Ekaterina Bazhenova profiled the heartbreaking conditions faced by children with HIV in the Irkutsk region. These children have been abandoned by their families, and as Merkulova writes, “they haven’t been outside a single time; they haven’t seen the sky. They see masks instead of human faces; they feel rubber gloves instead of warm hands.” To make matters worse some of these children have been misdiagnosed, but their mistreatment in their early years affects them throughout their lives. “The Cage” is a touching, poetic portrayal of a problem that has received too little attention-the growing effects of the AIDS epidemic in Russia.
Citation:
Timur Aliev
Moskovsky Komsomolets, The Moscow Times, Russian Courier
“Contemporary Chechnya”