On Tuesday 16 December, the European Parliament awarded the 2025 Sakharov Prize to the representatives of imprisoned Polish-Belarusian journalists Andrzej Poczobut and Mzia Amaglobeli.
“This prize is awarded to them in recognition of their courageous fight for democracy”, said European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, calling for the immediate release of the two journalists.
“The absence of my father is a reality that we have learned to live with, but that we have never accepted. We didn’t choose this path, but we choose, every day, to believe in him and to believe that truth and dignity still matter”, emphasised Andrzej Poczobut’s daughter, Jana. She welcomed the European Parliament’s attention, which “preserves human dignity where everything else tries to erase it”. “You show that even when a person is taken away, their principles cannot be taken away. And even when someone is silenced, their voice continues to speak through others”, she added.
In a letter read out by her colleague Irma Dimitradze, Mzia Amaglobeli said she accepted the award “on behalf of my colleagues, the journalists who are now fighting in Georgia to save journalism as such” and “all political prisoners who are unjustly imprisoned and convicted for fighting for Georgia’s European future”. Describing the Georgian regime as “ruthless”, she called on MEPs to defend Georgian society - its democracy and its European aspirations - with the same fervour as they defend freedom in their own countries. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)