Sergii LESHCHENKO

Sergii Leshchenko is a Kyiv-based journalist, blogger, and press freedom activist elected in 2014 as a Member of the Parliament of Ukraine. Currently, he is a member of Committee on Corruption Prevention and Counteraction in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
In 2000-2014, Mr. Leshchenko worked for internet newspaper “Ukrayinska Pravda”, where he specialized in anti-corruption investigations and in-depth political reporting. He helped launch the “Stop Censorship!” movement in 2010 and “Chesno” campaign that called for transparency in the Parliament of Ukraine.
In 2011, Poland’s Foundation of Reporters recognized Mr. Leshchenko as the best journalist within the countries of the Eastern Partnership. In 2013, Mr. Leshchenko was awarded a Press Prize by the Norwegian Fritt Ord Foundation and the German ZEIT Foundation. In 2014, he was honored with the NDI’s Democracy Awards and selected as one of Reporters Without Borders “100 Information Heroes-2014”.
In 2012, Sergii Leshchenko was awarded a John Smith Fellowship, and in 2013 he received a Draper-Hills Fellowship at Stanford University. Mr. Leshchenko was Reagan-Fascell Fellow in Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy in 2013-2014.
In 2015, Sergii Leshchenko started a lecture course on journalism in the Lviv-based Ukrainian Catholic University.