Tatyana Mitkova

Tatyana Rostislavovna Mitkova (Татья́на Ростисла́вовна Митко́ва; born 13 September 1955) is a Russian television journalist for NTV. She became famous in 1991 for refusing to read the official Soviet Union version of the military response to the uprising in Lithuania. In 2001, BBC News described her as one of Russia's "best-known news presenters".

In 1991, she received one of the first International Press Freedom Awards from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

In January 2001, she was summoned by prosecutors to discuss an alleged $70,000 loan from NTV. The summons came in the midst of an attempted takeover of the station by Gazprom, and Mitkova described it as "psychological pressure and a direct threat to journalists". At the end of the month, a Moscow court gave Gazprom control of NTV's owner Media-Most, which was by then described by BusinessWeek as "Russia's sole independent national television station" and by The New York Times as "the last nationwide voice critical of President Vladimir V. Putin". Despite a lockout of some journalists who refused to "pledge loyalty" to the new management, Mitkova was persuaded to stay with the station by new owner Boris Jordan.

Awards and decorations

 * Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 4th class (16 November 2011)
 * Order of Honour (22 April 2014)
 * Order of Friendship (27 November 2006)
 * Russian Federation Presidential Certificate of Honour (26 July 2021)
 * Russian Federation Presidential Certificate of Gratitude (23 April 2008)
 * Russian Federation Presidential Certificate of Gratitude (10 July 2023)
 * Commemorative Medal of 13 January (11 January 1994) Mitkova later decided to forgo the medal in solidarity with Dmitry Kiselyov, who had been stripped of it "for the discredit to the name of an awarded person". On 14 April 2014, President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė deprived her of the medal.
 * CPJ International Press Freedom Award (1991)
 * TEFI in the nomination "News Programme Presenter" (25 May 1997)
 * Moscow City Prize in Journalism for 2001 (25 March 2002)
 * Olympia National Award for Public Recognition of Russian Women's Achievements in the nomination "Journalist of the Year" (3 March 2005)
 * TEFI Special Prize "For Personal Contribution to the Development of Russian Television" (3 October 2018)