Lecturer
Luke Harding
Luke Harding is an award-winning foreign correspondent with the Guardian. He has reported from Delhi, Berlin and Moscow and has covered wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. His new book Mafia State: How one reporter became an enemy of the brutal new Russia, is published by Guardian Books. Harding graduated with an International Baccalaureate diploma from UWC Atlantic College and studied English at University College, Oxford. While there he edited the student newspaper Cherwell. He worked for The Sunday Correspondent, the Evening Argus in Brighton and then the Daily Mail before joining The Guardian in 1996. In February 2011 Harding was refused re-entry into Russia. He became the first foreign journalist to be expelled from Russia since the end of the Cold War.
On behalf of the Wilberforce Lecture Trust and the Hull City Council, Ambassador Laurie Bristow presented Memorial with the 2016 Wilberforce Medal in recognition of their contribution to the protection of human rights in Russia and the preservation of the memory of the victims of political persecution. Ambassador Laurie Bristow congratulated Memorial’s co-founder Arseny Roginsky and Chair of the Memorial Human Rights Centre Alexander Cherkasov on winning the award, whilst underlining the UK’s continued support for civil society in Russia.
Посол Лори Бристоу вручил организации «Мемориал» медаль Уилберфорса от имени представителей Фонда имени Уилберфорса и мэрии города Халла, признавая тем самым их вклад в дело защиты прав человека в России и в сохранение памяти жертв политического преследования.
Посол поздравил одного из основателей «Мемориала» Арсения Рогинского и председателя правозащитного центра «Мемориал» Александра Черкасова с получением награды. Наряду с этим он подчеркнул, что Великобритания продолжает оказывать содействие гражданскому обществу в России.
