Journalism never dies, no matter the circumstances; it endures a culture of intimidation, censorship, and the silencing of those who dare to dissent.
Two imprisoned journalists, one in Belarus and the other in Georgia, have clinched the European Union’s top human rights honor, the Sakharov Prize 2025.
The European Parliament called them symbols of the “struggle for freedom.”
The prize was announced by the European Parliament president Roberta Metsola on Wednesday, October 22, 2025.
The Sakharov Prize, named after Soviet dissident and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov, was established in 1988 to acknowledge individuals or groups who fought for freedom of speech and basic human rights.
Each year, the winner is selected by a panel of senior European Union lawmakers from among candidates that are referred by the EU Parliament’s various political groups.
The two imprisoned journalists belong to Eastern Europe: one from Belarus named Andrzej Poczobut and the second from Georgia, Mzia Amaglobeli.
Andrzej Poczobut, a reporter for the leading Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza, is serving an imprisonment of eight years in the Novopolotsk correctional facility over charges of “undermining Belarus’s national security.”
While Georgian journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli is a leading voice in the country’s media landscape, she has established two independent media organizations in Georgia.
She has been serving a two-year imprisonment for assaulting a cop during an anti-government protest in August this year.
Her sentence drew fierce backlash from human rights organizations, which deemed it an effort to suppress press freedom.
Many of the Sakharov laureates, including Nelson Mandela, Denis Mukwege, Malala Yousafzai, and Nadia Murad, have also been the Nobel Peace Prize laureates.
Last year’s Sakharov laureate, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina, has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.
The award ceremony will be held in December this year, with money worth 50,000 euro ($58,000) at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.