WKU News

The 2022 Fleischaker/Greene Award for Courageous International Reporting has added a second recipient -- Olga Rudenko and the staff of the Kyiv Independent in Ukraine.

Editor-in-chief Rudenko and her staff at the Kyiv Independent have not shied away from telling the stories of their war-torn Ukraine. According to the publication’s website, “the Kyiv Independent is Ukraine’s English-language media outlet, created by journalists who were fired from the Kyiv Post for defending editorial independence.” Rudenko and the staff of 32 journalists continue to report from the frontlines of their country as Russia continues to wage a war that began in February of this year.

Four-time Pulitzer Prize photojournalist Carol Guzy was announced as the other recipient of the prestigious Fleischaker/Greene Award for Courageous International Reporting earlier this month. Guzy is the fifth journalist to receive the award from the Western Kentucky University School of Media, and Rudenko and her team will be the sixth. The WKU School of Media will host the 2022 award ceremony at 4 p.m. Nov. 14 in the Gary Ransdell Hall Auditorium.

Kim Greene, the co-founder of the award, stated how excited she was to offer two awards this year. “Jon and I were not able to offer an award in 2021 due to COVID,” she said. “Offering two outstanding journalists who are bringing the world exceptional coverage of this war makes the delay worth it.”

In 2008, Louisville attorneys Jon Fleischaker and Kim Greene created the Fleischaker/ Greene Fund for Excellence in First Amendment Issues at Western Kentucky University. The award recognizes a journalist who often reports under dangerous circumstances to protect freedom of speech and lead efforts to better understand populations that are underreported. The Fund also supports WKU’s Fleischaker/Greene Scholars Program, which gives top students in the School of Media the opportunity to take an advanced special topics class and brings nationally recognized speakers in journalism and First Amendment issues to the WKU campus.

Past award recipients include Lineth Bedoya Lima in 2016 from Colombia, Lotfullah Najafizada in 2017 from Afghanistan, Marcela Turati in 2018 from Mexico and Jessikka Aro in 2019 from Finland.

Guzy will accept the award by Zoom on Nov. 14 from Ukraine where she continues to report for Zuma Press. It is not yet determined if Rudenko will be able to join the Zoom presentation. To see a full list of the staff of the Kyiv Independent, visit the link: https://kyivindependent.com/team

For information about the recipients and the award ceremony, contact Jeanie Adams-Smith, Professor of Photojournalism, at 270-745-4144 or jeanie.adams-smith@wku.edu