Андрей Александров. Источник фото: frittord.no
Belarusian journalist and media manager Andrei Aliaksandrau, who is imprisoned in Belarus, has been named one of the winners of the 2026 Free Media Awards. The award was presented “for courage and commitment to defending press freedom and freedom of expression under an increasingly repressive regime.”
“Through his work at the independent Belarusian news agency BelaPAN and the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), he helped strengthen professional journalism standards, support independent media and build international networks of journalists and human rights defenders. Andrei Aliaksandrau was arrested for his activities in 2021. In 2022, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison on fabricated charges. He is recognized as a political prisoner,” the Fritt Ord website says.
Other winners this year include Mykhailo Tkach, head of the investigative journalism department at Ukrainska Pravda, the Georgian publication iFact, Armenia’s Factor TV and the Russian publication Verstka.
The award is presented annually by Norway’s Fritt Ord Foundation and Germany’s ZEIT-Stiftung to journalists from Eastern Europe. It is awarded to independent media outlets and journalists in Eastern and Central Europe in recognition of their investigative work under extraordinary circumstances.
Andrei Aliaksandrau and Iryna Zlobina were detained in January 2021. They married in a pre-trial detention center in September 2022. In early October 2022, Aliaksandrau was sentenced to 14 years in prison, while Iryna Zlobina was sentenced to nine years. Aliaksandrau was charged with creating an “extremist formation,” high treason, large-scale tax evasion and preparing citizens to participate in riots for paying fines and lawyers’ fees for people detained during protests. Zlobina was charged with high treason and preparing citizens to participate in riots.