Sakharov Prize: Two jailed Belarusian and Georgian journalists win top EU rights prize

Journalist Andrzej Poczobut stands in a defendants' cage during a court session in Grodno, Belarus, on January 16, 2023. LEONID SHCHEGLOV / AP

The EU parliament awarded the bloc's Sakharov human rights prize to jailed Georgian journalist and editor Mzia Amaghlobeli and Polish-Belarusian journalist Andrzej Poczobut on Wednesday, October 22, calling them symbols of the "struggle for freedom."

"Both are journalists currently in prison on trumped-up charges simply for doing their work and for speaking out against injustice," European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said, in announcing the laureates in Strasbourg. "Their courage has made them symbols of the struggle for freedom and democracy."

A symbol of journalistic defiance in Georgia

Amaghlobeli, 50, has emerged as a symbol of journalistic defiance to what critics see as a slide toward authoritarianism in her Black Sea nation – once a top candidate for European Union membership.