Belarus journalist group wins UNESCO’s press freedom award

By YURAS KARMANAU
Associated Press

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Belarus’ top independent journalists’ organization has been awarded a UNESCO press freedom award. The Belarusian Association of Journalists has been named as the laureate of the 2022 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. The $25,000 award is given for “outstanding contributions to the defense or promotion of press freedom especially in the face of danger.” BAJ has operated in Belarus since 1995. The country’s Supreme Court ordered it to be liquidated last year as part of the unprecedented crackdown on dissent that engulfed the ex-Soviet nation. The demonstrations broke out in August 2020 after authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko was given a sixth term in a presidential election that was widely seen as rigged.