Serhii Leshchenko

Serhiy Leshchenko is a Kyiv-based journalist, blogger, and press freedom activist elected in 2014 as a Member of the Ukrainian Parliament where he holds membership in the Committee on Corruption Prevention and Counteraction. From 2000 up to 2014, Mr. Leshchenko worked for Ukrayinska Pravda, where he specialized in anti-corruption investigations and other political reporting. He helped to launch the “Stop Censorship!” movement in 2010 and “Chesno” campaign that called for transparency of the Parliament’s activities. In 2011, Poland’s Foundation of Reporters recognized Mr. Leshchenko as the best journalist of the Eastern Partnership countries. He was awarded a John Smith Fellowship in 2012 and a Draper-Hills Fellowship at Stanford University in 2013. Most recently, in 2013, Mr. Leshchenko was awarded a Press Prize by the Norwegian Fritt Ord Foundation and the German ZEIT Foundation. Furthermore, he was a Reagan-Fascell Fellow in the Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy in 2013-2014. Mr. Leshchenko was ranked among the Reporters Without Borders “100 Information Heroes-2014”. In 2014, he was honoured with the NDI’s Democracy Award.