Donation from our former Director kicks off fund for journalists under pressure

For this academic year, the fellowship funded by Dr. Levy’s donation has been awarded to Maryana Drach, the Director of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service. Drach oversaw the service’s award-winning coverage of the country’s 2013-2014 Maidan demonstrations and the conflicts in Russian-annexed Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. She has an undergraduate degree in international studies from Roosevelt University (Chicago) and a graduate degree in Public Administration from the Institute of Public Administration and Local Government in Ukraine. Her research topic during her time in Oxford will be how social media has shaped public discourse during elections in Ukraine. 

David Levy, Senior Research Fellow and former Director of the Reuters Institute, said: “Much of what I learned about journalism in the course of my 10 years as Director is due to the over 200 journalist fellows who came to the Institute and their passion for journalism and truth telling never failed to move me. I was especially impressed and humbled by those from places where being a journalist requires extraordinary levels of personal courage and  self-sacrifice. In creating this fellowship I wanted to mark my admiration for so many past fellows while creating an opportunity for another from a conflict area to come Oxford and to return refreshed and inspired by the experience and exchange of the fellowship programme. I also hope this individual donation motivates many more to follow suit.”