The results of the annual DOT Journalism contest for reporters writing about the DNS and other internet addressing systems were announced at the Russian Internet Week (RIW 2019) on December 12. The annual contest was organized by the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ and the Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC) and supported by the Smart Internet Foundation; the official registrar is REG.RU.
More than 200 entries have been submitted for the competition including articles, analytical materials, opinion pieces and video reports. About 140 of them competed in the main categories for professional journalists, and a little more than 60 were submitted to the Young Journalists category, established specifically for novice correspondents under 18 writing about internet technologies for school or city media, on personal blogs or social media.
The jury, comprised of heads of press services at organizations involved in the domain industry, as well as professional journalists specializing in internet technology, selected the best journalists of 2019 in eight main categories with four special prizes – Young Journalists, Internet Governance, 25 years of .RU, and a REG.RU special prize.
The prize winners in the professional categories were: Andrei Sapegin (VESTI.RU), Igor Korolyov (CNews), Yulia Krivoshapko (Rossiyskaya Gazeta), Yevgenia Balenko (RBC), Dmitry Shestoperov (Kommersant), Anastasia Likhodedova (MIR 24) , Gennady Mozheiko (Komsomolskaya Pravda), and others.
The young winners included correspondents for school press centers and youth supplements of local publications, as well as novice bloggers from Moscow, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Magadan, Kostroma, Udmurtia, Chelyabinsk, Samara, Rostov regions, etc.
Coordination Center Director Andrei Voroboyov presented the 25 Years of .RU prize to Anastasia Likhodedova from MIR 24 TV company. “The DOT Journalism contest is bringing together more and more participants every year, but the special .RU national domain anniversary prize engendered particularly stiff competition. This topic seems to be of interest to our journalists, and a lot of the material submitted was about domain addressing, the development of national domains, and the anniversary of .RU. Journalists also covered the premiere of our film, Internet for All, made by the Social Film Foundation for the .RU / .РФ Coordination Center. Anastasia Likhodedova’s work also had to do with the film, but hers was a report with a twist – instead of covering the premiere, the journalists went to visit the protagonists and showed their daily lives. This story fascinated the jury and won the prize,” Andrey Vorobyev said.
The Life Outside Runet prize went to a journalist from Belarus, Gennady Mozheiko (Komsomolskaya Pravda). “This is a very symbolic victory. This year, the Belarusian .BY domain also marked its 25th anniversary, and we are happy to have been able to give our colleagues this anniversary gift,” he added.
The winners received diplomas and prize packages from the contest organizers and partners, including gadgets, board games, certificates for domain name registration and hosting services, and .RU 25 souvenirs.
The DOT Journalism contest recognizes journalists who cover domain industry trends, facts and key events relating to the use of DNS and other internet addressing systems in their articles, analytical materials as well as video and radio reports. One of its important goals is to raise the profile of the domain industry among internet users, explain the benefits of owning a domain name and improve the writing and quality of publications about internet addressing systems and new technologies.
