PRIX EUROPA
European Journalist of the Year 2021:
Katsiaryna Andreyeva, Darya Chultsova
from Belarus
Laudatory Speech by Can Dündar
Dear Katsiaryna Andreyeva, dear Darya Chultsova,
We are honouring you and your work tonight - IN ABSENTIA!
Dear friends, dear colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let's stop for a moment to think about what this means - in absence. To let our imaginations wander to where you, Katsiaryna, and you, Darya, are now. What might you be doing at this moment in time?
You are about 1500 km from here locked away in the Women's Correctional Labour Colony Nr.4 in Homiel as “prisoners with extremist tendencies" - just for doing your work.
Are you lying in your bunk beds exhausted from sewing uniforms all day, counting the 491 long days of the two years you still have in the detention camp?
Do you wonder in sleepless nights, what it is you did wrong?
How the hell you got there and why?
On November 15, 2020 27 year-old Katsiaryna Andreyeva and her 23-year old colleague and camerawoman Darya Chultsova live-streamed for five hours a protest against the authoritarian Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko. Hundreds of people had gathered to commemorate Raman Bandarenka—an activist beaten to death, allegedly by plain clothed police officers — and demand justice for his death. After police dispersed the peaceful demonstrators, ten riot police officers broke into the apartment the journalists used as a vantage point, detained both of them, and seized their equipment. They were found supposedly guilty of “organizing activities violating public order” by a district court in Minsk on 18 February 2021 and sentenced to two years in a labour colony.
The two women work for Belsat, a Poland-based broadcaster set up by Belarusian and Polish journalists to cover events in Belarus. It was recently classified as "extremist" by the Belarusian regime.
Around 40.000 people have been detained since Lukashenko’s contested re-election on 9 August 2020, among them about 500 media professionals. The Belarusian press club BAJ, a beacon in the fight for freedom of expression was closed down recently. Belarusian media have been under attack: the newspage 1 Region, Hrodna.life, the Minsk office of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the newspaper Nasha Nidwa, the independent newspage Tut.by, the magazine Nascha Istorija, the independent newspage Orsha, the online platform Intex-press, the Telegram-Channel Nexta... The list is long and it is getting longer.
Journalists are disappearing behind bars.
Like you, Katsiaryna, and you, Darya!
Is two years in a Belarusian labour colony too high a personal prize to pay for wanting the world to know what was going on in the streets of Minsk? Was it worth it?
We can't answer that.
What we CAN say is: THANK YOU!
Thank you for your courage and your will to report independently - no matter what!? Thank you for letting us know about the events in Belarus, thank you for keeping up the voice of independent journalism and of freedom of speech in circumstances that demand otherwise. Thank you for risking your lives to do your work, for telling the truth as you find it and for informing the world of your findings.
It is important to stand firmly behind the principles of democracy, human rights and the freedom of the press. And to support those who are fighting for these principles.
Dear Katsiaryna Andreyeva, dear Darya Chultsova, it is with this in mind that we at PRIX EUROPA want to support your fight and honour you with the title “European Journalist of the Year”.
Can Dündar Turkish journalist in Exile and European Journalist of the Year 2017
We can support Katsiaryna Andreyeva, Darya Chultsova by sending letters to the address: Penal Colony #4. 246035, Homiel, Antoshkina Street, 3, Belarus.