The 2025 Sakharov Prize honors two jailed journalists: Andrzej Poczobut and Mzia Amaglobeli

The European Parliament awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought on 22 October 2025 to two imprisoned journalists: Andrzej Poczobut, from Belarus, and Mzia Amaglobeli, from Georgia.

Poczobut, a journalist and prominent member of Belarus’s Polish minority, was detained in 2021 and sentenced in 2023 to eight years in prison. Amaglobeli, founder and director of independent outlets Batumelebi and Netgazeti, was detained in January 2025 during anti-government protests and sentenced to two years in prison.

The prize, worth €50,000, was presented in Strasbourg in December. Honoring two journalists underscores the repressive drift in two EU neighboring countries and the use of imprisonment as a tool against independent media.

Source: European Parliament.