site.btaValya Krushkina Fund Names Winners in 14th Edition of Journalist Competition

The Valya Krushkina Fund at the Workshop for Civic Initiatives Foundation named the winners in the 14th edition of its journalist contest, the Workshop reported. The awards ceremony was held Wednesday at the Pi point in Sofia. 

The 2025 Grand Prize went to Milena Kirova of Bulgarian National Television (BNT) for an analysis examining whether votes from the Velichie party may have shifted to other political groups, an in-depth investigation that raises broader questions about the transparency and integrity of the electoral process. 

Yanka Petkova of OFFNews.bg grabbed the writing journalist prize for her investigation on how BGN 430,000 for promoting organ donation disappeared in three months.

Maya Dimitrova of BNT won in the category for journalist in electronic media for the film Architects of Chaos, which traces the mechanisms of disinformation and their impact on public attitudes.

Goritsa Radeva of OFFNews.bg was named the promising journalist for her report offering a direct look at life in the Donetsk region, where war has become part of daily reality.

Freelance journalist Zhivko Konstantinov received the photojournalist award for his photo essay on the first steps Bulgarians have taken on the hard-to-reach Smith Island in Antarctica. The series documents a Bulgarian scientific expedition to one of the most inaccessible places on the planet.

As is tradition, the awarded journalists received the glass pear-shaped inkwell, a statuette created by artist Elena Kitova, which for years has been a symbol of the competition, the team noted.

The Fund was established as a memorial to veteran TV journalist Valya Krushkina, who died in 2012. The Fund has two main purposes: to support the treatment of children with cancer and "brave Bulgarian journalism with a human face". The awards are intended to distinguish responsible and objective journalism. The contest is open to members of print and electronic media, Internet sites and blogs, and practitioners of civic journalism. To date, more than 620 journalists and over 1,400 entries have been nominated.