Andrzej Poczobut, a correspondent of Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza to Belarus and an activist of Union of Poles in Belarus was given the award of the Journalist of the Year, granted annually by a monthly media magazine Press.
The title of the Journalist of the Year is awarded for “professionalism, promotion of world standard in media work and upholding ethical standards of the profession”. Candidates are proposed by the editorial staff.
Andrzej Poczobut’s award was received by his wife Oksana. Poczobut cannot leave Belarus. In June, after spending three months in detention, he was sentenced to three years of imprisonments in suspension for two years for labeling president Aleksander Lukashenka.
Poczobut stressed that his story has an optimistic tone, because it shows that “in 21st century it is impossible to shut someone’s mouth, and a dictatorship has to lose with technology. ”
PAP
Belsat
