The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought is the EU’s highest distinction for human rights work. Awarded annually by the European Parliament since 1988, it pays tribute to individuals and organisations defending freedom of thought and fundamental rights. 

In 2025, it was awarded to two brave journalists who have paid a terrible price for defending human dignity and democracy in their countries: Polish Belarusian journalist Andrzej Poczobut and Georgian journalist Mzia Amaglobeli, both still in prison and denied any or almost any contact with the outside world.

On 16 December in Strasbourg, the European Parliament held the Sakharov Prize award ceremony in the presence of representatives of the two laureates. The other two finalists also attended: representatives of journalists and humanitarian aid workers in Palestine and in all conflict zones, and Serbian students who have been protesting against corruption in their country for over a year.

‘This House stands in solidarity with Andrzej and Mzia in their struggle. We call for their immediate release, along with every person wrongfully imprisoned. We will keep up the pressure until everyone is free… Democracy takes work; it takes dedication; it takes the courage to act, even when the cost is unimaginably high. This is what this year’s laureates teach us’, said EP President Roberta Metsola.

Receiving the prize on behalf of her father, Jana Poczobut said: ‘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.’

Andrzej Poczobut has spent years reporting on the oppressive regime in Belarus and advocating for its Polish minority. Following a crackdown on the Union of Poles, he has been serving an eight‑year sentence in a penal colony since 2021. He is in solitary confinement in a concrete cell. His family has not spoken to or seen him for five years.

‘Every day we choose hope, because hope is the only thing that has not been taken from us. And there are many families whose stories echo ours… Your recognition cannot change the past, but it gives us something extremely precious for the future: the belief that justice and humanity still have a place in this world’, Ms Poczobut said in her emotional speech before the Parliament.

Mzia Amaglobeli, Georgian journalist and co‑founder and director of the independent media outlets Batumelebi and Netgazeti, received a two‑year prison sentence in January 2025 on charges related to an alleged confrontation with police during anti‑government protests. She became the first female journalist imprisoned for political reasons in independent Georgia.

In a speech read at the ceremony by her friend, Georgian journalist Irma Dimitradze, Ms Amaglobeli said she accepted the award on behalf of all political prisoners unjustly imprisoned and convicted for fighting for Georgia’s European future.

Ms Amaglobeli said Georgia had been captured by a regime that serves Russian interests and is destroying independent journalism, abolishing opposition political parties and dismantling NGOs by labelling them as foreign agents. It is also ruthlessly beating, fining, arresting and blackmailing those who have been protesting on Georgian streets since the announcement that their country’s EU accession process would be suspended.

‘It is my wish that you stand with Georgian society, its democracy and its European aspiration in the same way you stand for the freedom of your own countries... It must now be unmistakably clear that the force behind the horrors in Belarus, Ukraine and Georgia is moving closer to the heart of Europe. It is heading towards your homes, and we are merely in its way’, Ms Amaglobeli warned.

If Ukraine and Georgia were to be left alone in the face of Russia’s aggression, this would be an irreparable historical mistake for which we would all pay a heavy price.

‘The fate of our struggle does not depend on us alone, because our struggle is not only about us. We need your solidarity and support… Fight with us, fight for us. Fight as you would fight for the freedom of your own countries. Use every mechanism at your disposal, and do so before it’s too late’, Ms Amaglobeli concluded.

In Belarus alone, over a thousand people remain imprisoned for political reasons. In a recent article in EESC Info, exiled Belarusian journalist Hanna Liubakova, sentenced to 10 years in prison in absentia, wrote that the EU and the international community must not ease pressure until all are freed and systemic repression ends.

In July 2025, the EESC signed a memorandum of understanding with Belarusian democratic forces represented by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, reaffirming its unwavering support for a democratic Belarus. The memorandum formalises a new phase of structured collaboration to support Belarusian civil society and its European aspirations.

EESC President Séamus Boland congratulated the European Parliament on its decision to award the Sakharov Prize to Mr Poczobut and Ms Amaglobeli. The EESC expressed its solidarity with the laureates and their fight for freedom and democracy.

‘I would like to emphasise with all my strength that there is no democracy without independent journalists, because freedom of the press is the pillar of democracy’, Mr Boland said in the EESC video dedicated to the Sakharov Prize.(ll)