BelaPAN’s Chief Editor Iryna Leushina Wins Belarusian Human Rights Defenders’ Prize

The jury chose the edi­tor-in-chief of Bela­PAN news agency Iry­na Leushy­na the Jour­nal­ist of the Year.  The founders of the Award note, Leushy­na “is mak­ing reg­u­lar efforts to keep human rights on the agen­da in Belarus.”

Leushy­na thanked all those who nom­i­nat­ed her, as well as col­leagues and human rights activists who expressed sol­i­dar­i­ty with the jour­nal­ists in “BelTA case”, where she had been one of the defen­dants.  «Thanks to your sup­port, the major­i­ty man­aged to avoid crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion, now all sup­port should be giv­en to Mary­na Zolata­va, who faces tri­al. This tri­al will be a dis­grace for the state,» — said Leushy­na.

Bela­PAN’s chief edi­tor said, the award belonged not only to her, but to all jour­nal­ists charged in “BelTA case”, and reas­sured that human rights issues “will always be the focus of Bela­PAN”.

Oth­er peo­ple on the short­list for this nom­i­na­tion were Bela­PAN’s inter­na­tion­al observ­er Tat­siana Kar­avenko­va and pub­li­cist, prose writer and jour­nal­ist of the Svo­bod­nye Novosti news­pa­per Alexan­der Tamkovich.

Leushy­na and Kar­avenko­va were among the 15 jour­nal­ists charged in the “BelTA case”,  ini­ti­at­ed by BelTA news agency. The inves­tiga­tive com­mit­tee accused the jour­nal­ists of unau­tho­rized access to com­put­er infor­ma­tion.

At the end of Novem­ber, the charges against all but 1 media rep­re­sen­ta­tives were dropped — after reim­burse­ment of the large sums of dam­age and pay­ment of a fine of 735 rubles under Arti­cle 86 of the Crim­i­nal Code (exemp­tion from crim­i­nal lia­bil­i­ty due to impo­si­tion of admin­is­tra­tive sanc­tions). The only per­son still under charges is the chief edi­tor of tut.by, Mary­na Zolata­va, who was charged under Part 2 of Art. 425 of the Crim­i­nal Code (offi­cial inac­tion).

The vic­to­ry in the nom­i­na­tion “Human Rights Defend­er of the Year” was shared by the direc­tor of Lawtrend cen­ter Vol­ha Smalian­ka, who is one of the lead­ing experts in the field of free­dom of asso­ci­a­tion and the rights of non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tions in Belarus, and the lead­ers of the inde­pen­dent trade union REP Henadz Fedyn­ich and Ihar Kom­lik.

This sum­mer, the trade union lead­ers were con­vict­ed of tax eva­sion (part 2 of arti­cle 243 of the Crim­i­nal Code) and sen­tenced to four years of restric­tion of lib­er­ty with­out being sent to an insti­tu­tion with a five-year ban to occu­py lead­er­ship posi­tions. Inter­na­tion­al trade union and human rights orga­ni­za­tions called the per­se­cu­tion of Fedyn­ich and Kom­lik polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed and regard­ed it as an attempt to put pres­sure on the inde­pen­dent trade union move­ment in Belarus.

The co-founder of the human rights orga­ni­za­tion Human Con­stan­ta Anas­ta­sia Loi­ka was also short­list­ed in this nom­i­na­tion. She is an expert in the field of free­dom of assem­bly, forced migra­tion, legal assis­tance to refugees, as well as issues of anti-dis­crim­i­na­tion and equal­i­ty. In 2009, Loi­ka worked as a lawyer for the Com­mit­tee for the Pro­tec­tion of the Repressed ‘Sol­i­dar­i­ty’, and in 2010–2018, she was a lawyer at the Human Rights Cen­ter Vias­na.

The award in the nom­i­na­tion ‘Human Rights Cam­paign / Ini­tia­tive of the Year» was giv­en to the cam­paign «Human Rights Defend­ers against the Death Penal­ty in Belarus». The cam­paign was found­ed in 2009 by the Human Rights Cen­ter Vias­na and the Belaru­sian Helsin­ki Com­mit­tee.  The cam­paign reg­is­ters com­plaints of those under sen­tence of death with the UN Human Rights Com­mit­tee; rais­es aware­ness on the use of the death penal­ty in Belarus; holds pick­ets and per­for­mances against cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment; and advo­cates for abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty in Belarus at the nation­al and inter­na­tion­al lev­el.

Anoth­er cam­paign on short­list was the cam­paign against the con­struc­tion of a bat­tery fac­to­ry near Brest. The cam­paign against the bat­tery fac­to­ry began in Jan­u­ary 2018. Res­i­dents of Brest and Brest Dis­trict believe that the bat­tery fac­to­ry built by OOO «AiPow­er» the Brest free eco­nom­ic zone threat­ens their health. The com­pa­ny plans to orga­nize ful­ly inte­grat­ed pro­duc­tion of lead-acid bat­ter­ies. Activists have iden­ti­fied a num­ber of vio­la­tions dur­ing the project and are seek­ing to sus­pend con­struc­tion.

The nation­al award for achieve­ments in the field of human rights was found­ed in 2008 by Human Rights Alliance. Since 2011, it is giv­en on behalf of the entire Belaru­sian human rights com­mu­ni­ty. The co-founders of the award are the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists, the Belaru­sian Doc­u­men­ta­tion Cen­ter, the Belaru­sian Helsin­ki Com­mit­tee, the Human Rights Cen­ter Vias­na, the Barys Zvozkau Belaru­sian House of Human Rights, the Sol­i­dar­i­ty Com­mit­tee, the Legal Ini­tia­tive Cen­ter, as well as the pub­lic ini­tia­tive Against Law­less­ness in Courts and Pros­e­cu­tion Bod­ies. Award win­ners are deter­mined by the jury, which con­sists of rep­re­sen­ta­tives of about three dozen orga­ni­za­tions.

All pho­tos by BAJ press ser­vice

Лаўрэатка Праваабарончай прэміі 2017 года — журналістка Радыё «Свабода» Галіна Абакунчык ФОТАРЭПАРТАЖ

У Мінску названыя лаўрэаты прэміі беларускай праваабарончай супольнасці (ФОТА)

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