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Elif Akgül
Elif Akgül is a journalist known for her focus on freedom of expression and gender-based reporting. She started her career as a reporter at IMC TV, which was shut down after the 2016 coup attempt. For six years, she was the freedom of expression news editor at bianet.org, and co-authored a handbook on "Gender Based Journalism." For her coverage of the fallout from the murder of Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007 and the subsequent court case, Akgül was awarded the Special Prize of the Metin Göktepe Journalism Award together with her colleague Canan Coşkun. Akgül also currently works as a freelance journalist, for example, for Deutsche Welle, +90, İlke TV and various Kurdish media. For 14 years, she has been reporting on freedom of expression and court cases against journalists. She observes and reports on trials for organizations such as the Clooney Foundation and the Media and Law Studies Association. She was a fellow in RSF’s Berlin Scholarship Program in the fall of 2022. Elif Akgül was herself arrested in February 2025 during raids against the “People’s Democratic Congress”, an umbrella organization of pro-Kurdish and left-wing groups. She was held at Bakirkoy Women’s Prison in Istanbul until June 2025. She was released after three months in jail but was banned from leaving the country and awaiting trial in Turkey in Octber 2025, when the award ceremony took place.
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Xhabir Deralla
Xhabir Memedi Deralla, born in 1967, is a human rights activist, writer, journalist, and hybrid warfare analyst. He is one of the founders and serves as the head of CIVIL, a prominent human rights organization based in North Macedonia since its establishment in 1999. Deralla leads the organization's creative initiatives and serves as the chief coordinator and producer of multimedia projects, awareness-raising campaigns, festivals, documentaries, conferences, and other projects and events. Furthermore, since 2008, Deralla has been the person in charge of election observation operations of CIVIL in North Macedonia, cooperating with numerous international and regional organizations in that area. Additionally, Deralla and his team are specialized in several fields, including arms control (CIVIL is a senior member organization of IANSA), and countering disinformation and hybrid warfare tactics in the country and the Western Balkans region. He also holds the role of editor-in-chief and contributes as an author, analyst, and columnist for media outlets within CIVIL’s media platform. Deralla's career spans back to 1989, during which he has worked with numerous media organizations both domestically and internationally. He is the member of the Association of Journalists of North Macedonia since 1990, and a member of Amnesty International since 1994.
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Pelin Ünker
Pelin Ünker is an investigative journalist who has been working for Deutsche Welle in Turkey since 2018. Prior to that, she worked as a business reporter and financial editor at Cumhuriyet newspaper (2008-2018). She is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in Turkey and has led the Turkish part of ICIJ's Big Data and leak reporting projects, including the Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Implant Files, Pandora Papers, Shadow Diplomats and Deforestation Inc.
In her research, she deals not only with macroeconomic data on the state of the Turkish economy, privatization, and public procurements, but also with cases of corruption, tax avoidance and evasion. In connection with the lawsuit filed by former Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım and his sons over the Paradise Papers, Ünker was sentenced to one year, one month and 15 days in prison. Ünker, whose sentence was overturned by the Court of Appeal, was awarded the Don Bolles Medal by Investigative Reporters and Editors during that time. She has received further awards for her work, including the Investigative Reporting Award from the Progressive Journalists Association, the Transparency Award from Transparency International Turkey, and the European Union Investigative Journalism Award from BIRN and the Journalists' Association.
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Ivana Gordić Perc
Journalist at VOICE- Vojvodina Research and Analytical Center with more than 20 years of experience in the creation of different media contents. She started her career in 1999 on Radio Zrenjanin, from where she moved to the legendary Radio Coyote. In 2021 she uncovered the story about the inhumane and forceful working conditions in which around 500 Vietnamese workers were employed at the construction site of the Chinese Ling Long tire factory in Zrenjanin, Serbia. This story caused a lot of media attention in Serbia and internationally, including a debate in the European Parliament and at the United Nations. Due to her reporting, Ivana was faced with a lot of pressure and threats from those who tried to cover up the whole case. In 2022, Ivana Gordić received the Annual Award for Investigative and Analytical Journalism of the Independent Association of Journalists of Vojvodina (IJAV) for this story. Despite being the mother of three children, she is fearless in her journalistic work, which in her case is often accompanied by threats, especially when investigating corruption at the local level.
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Una Hajdari
Freelance journalist from Pristina, Kosovo, focused on Central and Eastern Europe and mainly reporting for US outlets like The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The New Republic, The Nation, Foreign Policy and others. Her work stands out from the usual reporting from Kosovo because she writes and reports in Albanian and Serbian, a rarity in Kosovo. She reports on all the countries of former Yugoslavia, specializing on nationalism, ethnic minorities, right-wing movements, dealing with the past, media freedom and post-war societies. Addressing these topics means often facing hostility and threats. Against all odds, Ms Hajdari investigates persistently and continues to critically question the local circumstances, fighting against stereotypes and prejudices. Una Hajdari is also involved with Reporters Without Borders and regional journalism initiatives. Her work is committed to press and media freedom, what often comes at a high personal price.
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Dragan Bursać
Born in Bihac in 1975, the Bosnian-Herzegovinian former philosophy teacher started his journalistic career at the turn of the millennium at Radio Banja Luka. In 2007, he started working for the independent and well-known BUKA portal, followed by engagements for Al Jazeera Balkans, Radio Sarajevo and Antena M Montenegro from 2016 on forward. He has received various awards for his work, like the Srdjan Aleksić Award, the UNHCR Journalist Award in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the European Press Prize in the "Opinion" category. Bursać focuses in his work on war crimes in former Yugoslavia, dealing with the past and humanity in war. To this day he lives and works in Banja Luka, even as his work has had made him the target of death threats and attacks, limiting his individual freedom. He nevertheless continues his work as a journalist and columnist.
