Who got the diamonds?

The Iskra Prize has found its owners - Russian journalists who distinguished themselves in the professional field last year. On January 31, the all-Russian public organization of media workers “Media-Union” held a ceremony to present the national press award at the theater center “On Strastnoy”.

The Iskra Prize has been awarded for the third year in a row. In total, in 2007, journalists submitted 1,063 works from 147 editorial offices to compete for the diamond prize. This year, Iskra was co-founded by the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications. As an honorary reward, journalists were presented with figurines, each with a diamond from the ALROSA company almost a carat in size. The jury of the award, chaired by the editor-in-chief of Expert magazine Valery Fadeev, traditionally includes heads of major newspapers and magazines and famous journalists.

Almost all leading Russian news agencies took part in the new category of the Information Prize, which was intended for the first time for journalists from news agencies. RIA Novosti correspondent Andrei Letyagin received a diamond prize for the best article on culture. Dmitry Gorokhov from ITAR-TASS was recognized as the best in the genre of political information. The Iskra jury awarded Interfax correspondent Oksana Kobzeva for the best article on an economic topic. A special prize for regional agencies went to the head of the Vostok-Media news agency, Natalya Mikerina.

A special Iskra prize was awarded to the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Argumenty i Fakty, Nikolai Zyatkov, in connection with the newspaper’s thirtieth anniversary.

The jury recognized Alexander Koksharov from the Expert magazine as the best journalist writing on economic topics. Colleagues from Expert magazine Andrei Gromov and Nikolai Silaev became Iskra winners for the best analytical article. The first prize for the best essay went to Elena Yampolskaya, a journalist from the Izvestia newspaper. The winner in the “Reporting” category was Izvestia correspondent Dmitry Sokolov-Mitrich. For the best interview, Yunna Chuprinina from Itogi magazine received her diamond. Another winner of the “Results” was journalist Maria Sedykh. The jury awarded her the award for best review.

Nikolai Varsegov, a correspondent for the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, received the Iskra award for the best journalistic investigation. In the “Photo of the Year” category, the winner was Vitaly Valishevsky, a photojournalist for the Russian Reporter magazine, an employee of the Siberia Press agency. The jury awarded the Russian Reporter journalists Oleg Rashidov and Arkady Babchenko for the best material about the military conflict and the fight against terrorism. Following the results of the competition, the prize for the most scandalous publication was given to Yulia Grishina from the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper.

Correspondent of the “City Newspaper for Pskov Residents” Alexey Semenov received the highest award in the “Feuilleton” category. For the best publication about sports, the correspondent of the newspaper “Zori Plus” Sergei Patrakov took the diamond with him to Dobryanka. It is worth noting that this year Krasnoyarsk distinguished itself with the number of well-deserved awards: two diamond Iskras went to this city at once. The jury of the award recognized the best design of the youth magazine "Tochka" by Krasnoyarsk author-designer Andrei Saraev. Also, Krasnoyarsk journalist Olga Lutsenko became the Iskra laureate in the “Debut” category.

During the ceremony, the role of the award's partners - AK ALROSA, Philip Morris Sales and Marketing and KMB Bank - was especially noted, without which it would have been impossible to organize such a large-scale journalistic competition.