Recipient of the 2022 Arthur Ross Media Award

Yaroslav Trofimov is the chief foreign-affairs correspondent of The Wall Street Journal. A native of Ukraine, he joined the Journal in 1999 as Rome correspondent and has since covered major stories around the world, serving as Middle East and Africa correspondent, as roving Asia correspondent based in Singapore, as Kabul bureau chief responsible for Afghanistan and Pakistan coverage, and as a columnist focused on the greater Middle East. He has spent most of 2022 in Ukraine, covering the Russian invasion.  Mr. Trofimov played a key role in the Journal’s coverage of historic events, such as the 2003 invasion of Iraq and its aftermath, the campaign against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria a decade later, the global impact of a more assertive China, and the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021. Mr. Trofimov was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his coverage of the Afghanistan crisis, won the Overseas Press Club citation for his analysis of the Covid pandemic’s impact on the world, shared in the OPC prize for his coverage of India, and was part of the Journal’s team that was a Pulitzer finalist for their coverage of Turkey. Mr. Trofimov is the author of two non-fiction books, “Faith at War” and “Siege of Mecca,” which has been published in several languages around the world and won the Washington Institute gold medal for the best book on the Middle East. He is also the author of an upcoming novel, to be published in 2024. He holds an MA from New York University and is currently based in Dubai.

Recipient of the 2022 Arthur Ross Media Award

Clarissa Ward is CNN’s chief international correspondent.

She has spent nearly two decades reporting from front lines in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt and Ukraine for CNN, ABC, CBS and Fox News.

A recipient of multiple journalism recognitions including nine Emmy Awards, two George Foster Peabody Awards, two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Awards, two Edward R. Murrow Awards and one George Polk Award, Ward is the author of ‘On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist’ (Penguin Press), which details her singular career as a conflict reporter and how she has documented the violent remaking of the world from close range.

Known for her in-depth investigations and high-profile assignments, Ward was on the ground in Ukraine as Russia began its invasion and spent more than 10 weeks travelling around the country. She recently reported from Kabul on what life is like one year after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, a story she covered live on the streets of the capital as it played out in August 2021.

Nearly two months after a military coup in February 2021, Ward and her team were the first foreign journalists permitted to enter Myanmar. In late 2020 Ward led the two-time Emmy Award-winning investigation of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny’s poisoning, even confronting a suspected member of the elite Russian toxins team at his home outside Moscow.

In 2019 her months-long, Emmy Award-winning investigation into Russia’s growing use of mercenaries – Putin’s Private Army – included the first on-camera interview with a former fighter for Wager, Russia’s most notorious private military contractor. After visiting a diamond mine with ties to a Russian oligarch in the Central African Republic, Ward and her team were followed and intimidated by a car full of Russians. After their reports came out, they were targeted by a Russian media propaganda campaign trying to discredit their reporting.

Ward has reported extensively in Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011, making multiple undercover assignments to the country. As one of the last Western reporters to visit rebel-held Aleppo, Ward was asked to address a UN Security Council meeting on the embattled Syrian city in 2016, stating “there are no winners in Aleppo.”

Ward graduated with distinction from Yale University, and in 2013 received an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Middlebury College in Vermont. She speaks fluent French and Italian, conversational Russian, Arabic and Spanish and basic Mandarin.

Recipient of the Special 2022 Arthur Ross Media Award

The Kyiv Independent is Ukraine’s English-language media outlet, created by journalists who were fired from the Kyiv Post for defending editorial independence. The Kyiv Post, Ukraine’s global voice, went silent on Nov. 8, 2021, days after celebrating the 26th year of its uninterrupted run. The publication was shut down by the owner in his attempt to take full control of the newsroom that has always followed the principle of editorial independence. Yet, the editorial team of the independent Kyiv Post refused to be silenced. If they couldn’t save the Kyiv Post brand, they could save its values. 

On Nov. 11, 2021, over 30 ex-Kyiv Post employees decided to continue the Kyiv Post’s legacy by launching a new publication – the Kyiv Independent. As the team embarked on this new project, they vowed to serve as the true, independent voice of Ukraine. The team unanimously chose Olga Rudenko, former deputy chief editor at the Kyiv Post, who dedicated 10 years to the brand, to lead the new publication as editor-in-chief. 

The Kyiv Independent provides fair and reliable news on a variety of topics. From Russia’s war against Ukraine and disinformation campaigns to the ongoing pandemic and medical procurement, from human rights in occupied Donbas and Crimea to reforms in Kyiv, nothing will escape the view of the Kyiv Independent. 

The following values are the backbone of the Kyiv Independent:  

• The new publication will serve its readers and community, and nobody else. 
• The Kyiv Independent won’t be dependent on a rich owner or an oligarch. The publication will depend on fundraising from readers and donors and later on, commercial activities. 
• The newsroom will decide and execute the publication’s editorial policy in the community’s best interests. Attempts to influence it from outside will not be tolerated. 
• The Kyiv Independent will always be at least partly owned by its journalists. 
• The Kyiv Independent will strive to reach financial sustainability to preserve its independence in the future.