The Award honors exceptional reporting on women's issues and aims to inspire further storytelling in this field.
THE VOICES OF WOMEN JOURNALISM AWARD
The Voices of Women Journalism Award is supported by the Petrichor Lane Endowment Fund, established by philanthropist Karen Renée Lane within the Ratiu Foundation in 2024, to recognise and support Romanian women journalists covering women’s rights and issues. It is also designed to foster a solidarity network and to create a space for impactful women’s stories, often overlooked or covered with bias by mainstream media.
The Award recognises and supports Romanian women journalists covering women’s rights and issues, while fostering a solidarity network and creating space for impactful women’s stories, which are often overlooked or covered with bias by mainstream media.
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Journalist Ioana Moldoveanu is the winner of the 2026 edition of the Voices of Women Journalism Award, a distinction granted by the Rațiu Forum, with the support of donor Karen Renée Lane, to journalists in Romania who document and publish outstanding reporting on issues related to women’s rights.
Ioana Moldoveanu has more than 20 years of experience in Romanian media. Over the past five years, she has focused on investigative journalism at Snoop and Rise Project, and developed the project “Catedra de Abuz”, which monitors and exposes sexual harassment in Romania’s education system. Her investigations, recognised at the Superscrieri Awards, have uncovered systemic abuse in academia and prompted legislative changes. Prior to investigative journalism, she founded the editorial team of VICE Romania, building the publication over eight years from scratch into one of the most widely read outlets among young audiences.
The laureate will receive a 2,500 EUR prize, with the recognition awarded particularly for the impact of her investigations. Last week, following the investigation “Master Manipulator: “Take your clothes off to prove your self-confidence”, sociologist and former SNSPA professor Alfred Bulai was sent to trial after several former students reported sexual abuse and abuse of authority.
“The recognition that these abuses are not isolated incidents, but part of a system that allows them to exist, was the most important shift. The investigations broke a culture of silence and created a space where victims are heard and believed. This generated public pressure, which led to a criminal investigation, legislative changes, amendments to ethics codes and, perhaps most difficult, a change in mindset: abuse in education is no longer tolerated or hidden, but exposed and sanctioned,” said Ioana Moldoveanu.
Funded through the Petrichor Lane Fund, created in 2024 by Karen Renée Lane within the Rațiu Foundation for Democracy (Rațiu Forum project), the Voices of Women Journalism Award recognises and supports journalists in Romania who write about women’s rights, including health and reproductive rights, domestic and gender-based violence, social inequalities, girls’ education, and women’s representation. In 2025, the pilot edition winner was Luiza Vasiliu, selected for the editorial project “Nașteri furate.” The Petrichor Lane Fund also supports the young journalists mentorship programme implemented by Rațiu Forum since 2021.
Luiza Vasiliu studied literature and became a journalist by contagion. In 2016, she co-founded Scena9, a platform for the young generation of artists and thinkers, where she edited over 1,000 pieces. In the meantime, she discovered the thrill of investigative journalism. She published a series about one of the most famous Romanian doctors, who performed unauthorised experimental procedures that killed children or left them crippled. This investigation led to the doctor’s arrest and was a finalist for the European Science Writer of The Year Award. Luiza also wrote about astrophysicists studying micro black holes, a teacher chastised for showing her students a movie about Verlaine and Rimbaud, and a communism dissident setting Stalin’s statue on fire. One of her latest works involves the Tate brothers and their ties to Romanian organised crime. Her areas of interest include human rights, gender-based violence, and human trafficking. She currently writes with Victor Ilie on the Substack “Drepturi și strâmbe” (Rights and wrongs), an investigative newsletter on disinformation, Russian operations, far-right movements, and hope.
2026 NOMINATIONS
The Voices of Women Journalism Award will continue to support women journalists in Romania who report on women’s rights. The nomination model will also foster a spirit of sisterhood: the current laureate may nominate up to three fellow women journalists whose work addresses key issues related to women’s rights, including women’s health and reproductive rights, domestic and gender-based violence, inequalities across different contexts, girls’ education, the representation of women in politics, and inspiring personal stories, among others. The Award provides an annual grant of up to 2,500 EUR.