Belarusian journalists and BAJ won Free Media Awards

On Novem­ber 1, a solemn award cer­e­mo­ny was held in Ger­many, attend­ed by the edi­tors of the inde­pen­dent TV chan­nel Natal­lia and Dzmit­ry Yaho­raus, jour­nal­ists Natal­lia Lub­neuskaya and Kat­siary­na Bary­se­vich, TUT.BY rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ali­ak­san­dr Pushkin and chair­man of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists Andrei Bas­tunets.

Free Media Awards are usu­al­ly giv­en to jour­nal­ists from dif­fer­ent coun­tries, but this year an excep­tion was made.

The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists has been award­ed the Free Media Awards for tire­less work in sup­port of jour­nal­ists’ rights. Togeth­er with its part­ner orga­ni­za­tion Reporters With­out Bor­ders, since the begin­ning of the protests in Belarus in August 2020, the BAJ has doc­u­ment­ed and made pub­lic numer­ous vio­la­tions of media free­dom and repres­sion against inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ists. In addi­tion, the BAJ offers assis­tance to jour­nal­ists and is an impor­tant source of infor­ma­tion for inter­na­tion­al media.

The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists was nom­i­nat­ed for the award by the Nor­we­gian Helsin­ki Com­mit­tee.

Since 2016, the Free Media Awards have been pre­sent­ed to inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ists, edi­tors, and media plat­forms in Rus­sia, Ukraine, Azer­bai­jan, Belarus, Geor­gia, and Arme­nia.