{"id":205557,"date":"2026-09-29T16:19:59","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T13:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/205557\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T16:42:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T13:42:16","slug":"free-media-award-presented-in-oslo-to-recently-released-andrej-alaksandarau","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/205557\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Media Award presented in Oslo to recently released Andrej Alaksandra\u016d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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September 29, Pozirk<\/em>.<\/strong> Media manager Andrej Alaksandra\u016d, who was released and deported from Belarus earlier this month after many years in prison, was honored with this year\u2019s Free Media Award at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway, on September 29.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking at the event, Alaksandra\u016d, who served as deputy director general of the private news agency BelaPAN<\/em> between 2015 and 2018, expressed determination to continue his journalistic work and said that he dedicated his award to \u201call courageous colleagues who are not giving up despite the difficult conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alaksandra\u016d described news of the award, which had reached him shortly before his release, as a \u201cgreat emotional boost.\u201d He said that he had continued to identify himself with journalists even in prison, because a journalist is a person who \u201ccontinues to tell people the truth about the situation and to collect even small fragments of available information to piece together a fact-based picture of reality, which authoritarian regimes hate so much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alaksandra\u016d pointed out that 15 media workers remain behind bars in Belarus and thanked his BelaPAN<\/em> colleagues, including Iryna Le\u016d\u0161yna and D\u017amitryj Nava\u017ey\u0142a\u016d, as well as his wife Iryna Z\u0142obina, who had also served years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrej Alaksandra\u016d \u201chas been chosen to receive a Free Media Award for his courage and commitment to freedom of the press and freedom of expression under an increasingly repressive regime,\u201d the organizers said while announcing the winners on September 4. \u201cThrough his work at the independent Belarusian news agency BelaPAN<\/em> and the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), he has helped strengthen professional standards of journalism, support independent media and build international networks of journalists and human rights defenders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norway\u2019s Fritt Ord Foundation and Germany\u2019s Zeit Stiftung Bucerius named Alaksandra\u016d a winner of the Free Media Awards along with Ukrainian investigative journalist Mykhailo Tkach, the Georgian investigative media outlet iFact<\/em>, the Armenian online media outlet Factor TV<\/em> and the exiled Russian online media outlet Verstka<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prestigious Free Media Awards, which honors independent, pro-democracy journalism in Eastern Europe and comes with a money prize of \u20ac15,000, was bestowed upon Belarus\u2019 web portal tut.by<\/em>, the BAJ and four Belarusian female journalists in 2021 amid a crackdown on non-state media in Belarus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrej Alaksandra\u016d and his then girlfriend Iryna Z\u0142obina were arrested on January 12, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October 2022, judge Via\u010das\u0142a\u016d Tulejka of the Minsk Regional Court sentenced Alaksandra\u016d to 14 years in prison and Z\u0142obina to nine years, on charges widely seen as politically motivated, including high treason, tax evasion and organizing actions grossly disturbing public order. Rights groups consider both political prisoners. They married in custody in September 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alaksandra\u016d served his term in Penal Colony No. 1 in Navapo\u0142ack, Viciebsk region, employed in the prison\u2019s woodworking shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The now-defunct BelaPAN<\/em> was branded an \u201cextremist group\u201d in Belarus in early November 2021. Some of the agency\u2019s journalists currently work with Pozirk<\/em>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the 2020 peaceful protests against election fraud, Belarusian authorities have equated criticism, solidarity, advocacy, the free media and free expression with extremism and terrorism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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