Maryna Zolatava awarded with the Johann Philipp Palm Prize

Belaru­sian jour­nal­ist Mary­na Zolata­va has been award­ed the prize as a «per­son of extra­or­di­nary courage and sin­cer­i­ty». The for­mer edi­tor-in-chief of the TUT.BY por­tal was nom­i­nat­ed by the «Reporters With­out Bor­ders» orga­ni­za­tion. The award cer­e­mo­ny will take place in Decem­ber 2024 in the Ger­man city of Schorn­dorf.

Mary­na Zolata­va. Pho­to: tut.by

The Johann-Philipp-Palm Prize is award­ed to indi­vid­u­als or orga­ni­za­tions that «demon­strate out­stand­ing com­mit­ment to the real­iza­tion of free­dom of expres­sion and free­dom of the press». The prize is award­ed to two indi­vid­u­als or orga­ni­za­tions. The total prize fund is €20,000, which is divid­ed equal­ly between the win­ners. The prize is award­ed every even-num­bered year on the first Sun­day in Decem­ber in Schorn­dorf.

This year, along with Mary­na Zolata­va, the award was giv­en to the news web­site on human rights in Afghanistan, «Zan­Times».

«In the face of enor­mous obsta­cles and repres­sive mea­sures by the state appa­ra­tus, Mary­na Zolata­va has proven her­self to be a per­son of extra­or­di­nary courage and sin­cer­i­ty,» stat­ed «Reporters With­out Bor­ders» and the advi­so­ry board of the Palm Foun­da­tion.

In Novem­ber 2023, Mary­na Zolata­va was also nom­i­nat­ed for the pres­ti­gious «Reporters With­out Bor­ders» Press Free­dom Award in the «Courage» cat­e­go­ry.

The case of Maryna Zolatava

Mary­na Zolata­va, the edi­tor-in-chief of TUT.BY, was arrest­ed on May 18, 2021. She was sen­tenced to 12 years’ impris­on­ment under two arti­cles of the Crim­i­nal Code: call­ing for actions aimed at harm­ing the nation­al secu­ri­ty of the Repub­lic of Belarus (Part 3 of Arti­cle 361) and incit­ing hos­til­i­ty or enmi­ty (Part 3 of Arti­cle 130).

On August 18, 2023, the Min­istry of Inter­nal Affairs includ­ed the polit­i­cal pris­on­er in the «List of Belaru­sian cit­i­zens, for­eign cit­i­zens, or state­less per­sons who are involved in extrem­ist activ­i­ties». She is serv­ing her sen­tence in penal colony No. 4.