Tully Award for Free Speech: Igor Rudnikov

Russian journalist Igor Rudnikov is the recipient of the 2020 Tully Award for Free Speech, presented by the Newhouse School’s Tully Center for Free Speech. Rudnikov is owner and editor of Novye Kolyosa, an independent newspaper in the western Russian city of Kalningrad.

Rudnikov has faced numerous threats as he has fought to continue publishing his paper. In 2016, he was stabbed five times by a group of unidentified individuals with government ties and nearly died. In 2017, he was arrested by Russia’s Federal Security Service on trumped up bribery charges and spent 592 days in prison. He has sold his apartment to fund the paper and, because no local printer will work with him, Rudnikov has been forced to print the paper in Moscow and transport it back to Kalningrad, an expensive process. He continues to fight for his paper despite repeated set-backs.