Natalia Zaharescu

Natalia Zaharescu was selected for the 2025 Shortlist with Serving Moscow.

Natalia Zaharescu has over 15 years of experience in the media. After more than 10 years of radio, Natalia joined the investigative department of Ziarul de Garda in January 2022. In the same year, Natalia Zaharescu conducted, together with three other ZdG journalists, an undercover investigation, demonstrating how Ilan Șor, an oligarch later sentenced to 15 years in prison for robbing a billion from the Moldovan banking system, organised paid protests.

In 2024, Natalia, together with her colleague, Măriuța Nistor, conducted another undercover investigation, in which the journalists managed to demonstrate that the same oligarch Ilan Șor, who fled from the Republic of Moldova to Moscow, formed and coordinated a vote-buying network, with the aim of fraud in the presidential elections and the referendum on European integration. For this investigation, the journalists of Ziarul de Garda received several national awards, including the Investigation of the Year award, offered by the annual Press Club in Chisinau, and an excellence award from the Union of Professional Journalists in Romania.

Măriuța Nistor

Măriuța Nistor was selected for the 2025 Shortlist with Serving Moscow.

Măriuța Nistor is a young journalist who began her work in the investigative department of
Ziarul de Gardă, the only investigative newspaper in Moldova, in June 2023, when she was
still studying journalism.
She documented topics about corruption, justice, politics. After a year of activity, Măriuța
Nistor with her collegue Natalia Zaharescu conducted an undercover investigation, in which
the journalists managed to demonstrate that the same oligarch Ilan Șor, who fled from the
Republic of Moldova to Moscow, formed and coordinated a vote-buying network, with the
aim of fraud in the presidential elections and the referendum on European integration. For
this investigation, the journalists of Ziarul de Garda received several national awards,
including the Investigation of the Year award, offered by the annual Press Club in Chisinau,
and an excellence award from the Union of Professional Journalists in Romania.