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  • Free Word contest organizers name winners. PHOTOS

    Today, on the International Day of Solidarity with Journalists, the winners of the Free Word, a major creative contest of independent journalists of Belarus, were announced. This year’s prize takers were received in Vilnius. The contest was held under the auspices of the European Federation of Journalists.

    The award cer­e­mo­ny took place as part of the round­table dis­cus­sion on the qual­i­ty of jour­nal­is­tic work of the Belaru­sian mass media affect­ed by relo­ca­tion and repres­sions.

    The inde­pen­dent media con­test is held year­ly to mark the pro­fes­sion­al skills of media work­ers, encour­age tal­ent­ed jour­nal­ists, and stim­u­late their activ­i­ties to pro­tect the prin­ci­ples of pro­fes­sion­al jour­nal­ism and free­dom of speech.

    “In 2006, Andrei Ali­ak­san­drau noticed that our jour­nal­ist orga­ni­za­tion did not hold jour­nal­ist con­tests and did not award jour­nal­ist prizes,” said Andrei Bas­tunets, the head of the BAJ, in his wel­com­ing speech. “In 2007, this omis­sion was cor­rect­ed. Mr. Ali­ak­san­drau is now in prison, but his cause lives on. Last year, how­ev­er, the com­pe­ti­tion did not take place for obvi­ous rea­sons: the war began, many news­rooms were relo­cat­ed, and the regime declared inde­pen­dent media ‘extrem­ist’. Besides, BAJ was giv­en the sta­tus of an ‘extrem­ist for­ma­tion’, and it would have been sur­pris­ing if we had giv­en awards to oth­er ‘extrem­ist’ media. But we were sup­port­ed by the Euro­pean Fed­er­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists. Now the con­test is held under their aus­pices.”

    Below are the contest results:

    Infor­ma­tive gen­res

    First place

    Dzmit­ry Pankavets, RFE/RL Belarus: “‘Nobody believed that we would stay alive’. Belaru­sian vol­un­teer fight­er Dzia­n­is ‘Kit’ on atroc­i­ties in Bucha”

    Second place

    Yahor Parfi­a­nen­ka, Novaya Gaze­ta. Evropa: “Mar­i­upol: the city that doesn’t exist”

     

    Third place

    Viyale­ta Sauchyts, RFE/RL Belarus, “Scars of Protest. Six pho­to sto­ries of August 2020 protest vic­tims”

     

    Ana­lyt­i­cal gen­res

    First place

    Dzmit­ry Kosach, Sal­i­dar­nasc: The “Ref­er­en­dum” series (“The very first ref­er­en­dum in Belarus: a cru­el joke of his­to­ry”; “Why Lukashenka’s vic­to­ry at the first ref­er­en­dum was ‘fair’, but ‘mean’”; “The last bat­tle before Lukashenka’s com­plete seizure of pow­er”; “Ref­er­en­dum char­ac­ter­ized by an ‘inde­cent scene’: Lukashen­ka oppos­ing Putin”; “Lukashenka’s ner­vous­ness – Putin’s sat­is­fac­tion. 10 sad and fun­ny moments of the 2020 ref­er­en­dum”

    Sec­ond place

    Vital Tsy­hank­ou, RFE/RL Belarus: “Lukashen­ka as the guar­an­tor of the sov­er­eign­ty loss”

     

    Трэцяе месца

    Third place

    Ali­ak­san­dr Klask­ous­ki, Pozirk: “Lukashen­ka is not ready to for­give his polit­i­cal ene­mies”

     

    Artis­tic and jour­nal­is­tic gen­res

    First place

    Zmitser Kaza­ke­vich, Bel­sat: “Nev­er ask a pris­on­er ‘How are you?…’ Big talk with Daria Chultso­va on her 38th day on the out­side”

     

    Sec­ond place

    Nas­tas­sia Zelianko­va, Sal­i­dar­nasc: The “Women” series (“Hali­na Makar­a­va. Makayonak’s fav and a woman with a shov­el”; “Zos­ka Veras. A woman from a for­est hut, who became the cen­ter of attrac­tion of the Belaru­sian intel­li­gentsia”; “She encour­aged dis­obe­di­ence to author­i­ties in the Belaru­sian lan­guage”; “Mozart in pet­ti­coats, who bought a gun for Kas­tus Kali­nous­ki”).

    Third place

    Ali­ak­san­dr Barazen­ka, Dzia­n­is Dudzin­s­ki, Bel­sat: The “Peo­ple of war” series

     

    Jour­nal­is­tic inves­ti­ga­tion

    First place

    Nasha Niva: “Infil­trates Belaru­sian NGOs under the guise of a lawyer, pass­es on infor­ma­tion to Kse­nia Lebedze­va. Strange activ­i­ties of Man­tas Danelius”

    Sec­ond place

    Ali­ak­sei Karpe­ka, Kse­nia Viaznikout­sa­va, Vol­ha Alkhi­men­ka, Belaru­sian Inves­tiga­tive Cen­ter: “Lukashenka’s sanc­tioned ‘wal­let’ Shakutsin con­tin­ues busi­ness in the EU despite sanc­tions”

     

    Third place

    Siarhei Liapin, Flagsh­tok, “Flagsh­tok found out the name of the infa­mous Telegram chan­nel admin. It is an offi­cial of the Homel region­al exec­u­tive com­mit­tee”

     

    A total of 144 jour­nal­is­tic works were sub­mit­ted to the Free Word 2022 cre­ative con­test.

    Read more:

    Postcards for Maryna: RSF launches global campaign action in support of jailed Belarusian journalist Maryna Zolatava

    “Everything his camera captured turned into a masterpiece.” Renowned photographer Anatol Kliashchuk passes away

    Important news. Lukashenka ordered the Belarusian embassies to stop issuing passports. Another threat to colleagues

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