Oleksandr Ananich, 20, Ukraine

Oleksandr has managed to drop two universities in Ukraine first studying philosophy and then journalism. Ukraine’s inability to provide decent education only proved that journalism is a tool to fight for a better future. His first attempts as a journalist took place during Maidan Revolution where he joined freelance journalists streaming the events live from iPhone. During the same time he worked as a photojournalist. Oleksandr is interested in politics, arts, linguistics, writing amateur articles and reviews.

Ivan Bevz, 24, Russia

Ivan is a freelance journalist and storyteller from Moscow. He studied Philology at Moscow State University and Media and Communication at University of Rostock in Germany, worked as an intern at GEO International and Deutsche Welle. Working with several Russian media resources and creating his own project, he approaches journalism in an artistic way and always tries to invent something new.

Petr Chernetskii, 26, Russia

Petr graduated from Southern federal university in 2013 (International Journalism). He has also studied journalism in Czech, Sweden, Germany and Russia, and currently working on the thesis for his PhD Studies. He worked as the editor-in-chief in the regional news website kr-news.ru and was a freelance teacher in SFEDU. Today Petr is working as a freelance journalist and PR-manager.  He was among the finalists of Spark of the South, the professional journalism award in South Russia. Also, Petr was a holder of a fellowship of Oxford Fund Russia. He has already been participating at the M100 YEJ in 2014.

Dumitru Cobzari, 24, Moldova

Dumitru is a young journalist from Moldova currently working as a reporter and web editor at the local newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda v Moldove. He holds a Bachelor degree in Journalism and Mass Communication earned at the State University of Moldova. He started his career after the first year of studies and has worked for a sports newspaper, a newsportal and a TV-channel. He has rich experience in covering crisis situations such as 2015–16 protests in Moldova. Now he is writing about different kinds of topics, such as social, political and economic issues.

Victoria Colesnic, 24, Moldova

Victoria has a Bachelor degree in Journalism and is currently doing her MA degree in Culture, Collaborative Media and Creative Studies at Malmö University, Sweden. She worked as a reporter at the Moldavian national newspaper “Timpul”. Now Victoria is writing in-depth stories on various issues for moldova.org. She is passionate about digital storytelling and data visualization.

Narine Daneghyan, 25, Armenia

Narine is a tech journalist with over 3 years of professional experience. She is covering Armenian and international tech sector for Itel.am tech news website in the Mediamax news agency. She was invited to cover various international tech and media events, such as Startup Istanbul 2016 and TechChill 2017 Riga. Narine spent one-month internship in different media outlets throughout U.S., as part of the Digital Communications Exchange program. She graduated from Interlink Academy's "Digital journalism in Eastern Europe" program, 2015, Germany. She holds a MA degree in Journalism from Yerevan State University.

Tatia Giunashvili, 20, Georgia

Tatia is doing her bachelor studies in journalism at The University of Georgia, Georgia. She participated in a workshop about investigative journalism – How to reveal propaganda by “Baltic to Black Sea Alliance”. Tatia has completed several trainings and internships in different organizations about journalism. Now she is working as a freelance trainer. Moreover, she works as a service manager at the University of Georgia Student clubs & Service Center. She is interested in investigative journalism, social issues such as human rights, refugees and gender issues.

Teona Goderdzishvili, 24, Georgia

Teona is a recent MA graduate from Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania. She has an educational background from Georgian and Irish universities. She is a multimedia journalist with diverse international experience. Teona has been contributing Chai-Khana NGO, South Caucasus journalist network and IWPR in Georgia. Her main fields of interest are education, minorities, social and environmental issues.​ Teona did her internship in a newsroom at RFE/RL Georgian bureau, Prague. She is an author of a short documentary. Working on an educational board game on her free time.

Izzetkhanim Jabarli, 24, Azerbaijan

Izzetkhanim has graduated from University of Economics. After also studying Journalism at the Democracy School, she started to work as a multimedia journalist at Toplum TV in Baku. With two colleagues she initiated her own new journalistic video project. This social experiment was about the living wage in Azerbaijan. It was published In RFEL (Radio Liberty) Azerbaijani Service and translated into english and russian. The social experiment won the prize “Best of Radio Liberty”. Izzetkhanim has her own video project "7 Questions" and creates video reportages about economic, social and political issues at Toplum TV.

Tatiana Kondratenko, 23, Russia

Tatiana has finished her BA in international journalism at Saint Petersburg State University and has spent one term at Danish School of Media and Journalism, studying Journalism, Multimedia and World Politics program. Currently, she is doing her double-masters degree in Global Communication and International Journalism at Free University of Berlin and Saint Petersburg State University. She has participated in several Russian-German workshops and conferences for young journalists. Her main professional focuses are environmental topics and social conflicts: she has been working as a freelance journalist for GEO magazine in Russia, online media outlets such as The Village and Bumaga, ClimateRussia, media project.

Manvel Keshishyan, 27, Armenia

Manvel is a prize-winning journalist with expertise in TV and digital journalism. Currently, he is the head of ‘’On the Square’’, an economic TV program focusing on governmental projects, IT and economy of Armenia. Manvel has been a TV and digital reporter, anchor, and producer. He worked at the ”Shant” TV, one of the most famous and trustful channels in Armenia for 5 years. Later, he anchored ‘’911,” an award-winning program on ”Shant” TV. During his career, he produced a number of films and developed various projects.  Along with his full-time job, Manvel has invariably contributed to local and foreign media outlets. Manvel is an alumnus of the University of Hong Kong, majoring in journalism and media studies.

Vladislav Kovalevski, 22, Belarus

Vladislav is a journalist focusing on finance and economics topics. He recently graduated from Belarusian State University with a Bachelor degree in Journalism and Media Management. Starting his path in journalism from the first grade at the university, he has worked in a magazine, a newspaper and a radio station since then. Currently he works for TUT.BY – the most popular independent news web-site in Belarus. Aside from the main job, he’s a contributor at a travel magazine.

Nadzeya Prasvirava, 21, Belarus

Nadzeya has just finished her BA in Audiovisual Journalism. After various experiences in working at state radio and TV channels, writing scenarios for historical documentaries, volunteering at cinema and theater festivals, she has found her place in independent online media, such as TUT.by and 34mag.net.  She was also a blogger at the Transylvanian International Film Festival (TIFF) while spending one semester in Romania that inspired a lot to collaborate with foreign colleagues to achieve something great together. Currently, Nadzeya is working for three Belarusian media writing in three languages at the same time. She is covering art, youth activism, ecology, mindfulness and ecology.

Anton Ruliou, 28, Belarus

Anton is a project coordinator at Belarus in Focus Information Office, focusing on the organization of Belarus in Focus international journalism competition. He also collaborates with Press Club Belarus, an independent media organization for the development of Belarusian media community based in Minsk. He obtained his MA degree in Intercultural Communication and New Media from Collegium Civitas (Warsaw, Poland).

Samra Sadraddinli, 24, Azerbaijan

Samra holds a Bachelor and Masters degree in Journalism and Media Management from the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs. During her studies in Baku and Tbilisi, she also worked for different media outlets. She has worked as a producer and speaker for daily programs in online radio, as a reporter and photojournalist. Besides, she completed different training programs in journalism held by OCCRP and SSE Riga, and also internships including the Prague office of RFRL.