Katsyaryna Barysevich

Katsyaryna Barysevich (, ) (born on 2 August 1984 in Staryya Darohi, Minsk Region, Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union) is a journalist from Belarus. She worked for the website TUT.BY, European Radio for Belarus and other media. She wrote about the death of Raman Bandarenka in 2020. She was arrested on November 19, 2020, in Minsk.

 Criminal procedure 
On March 2, 2021, Barysevich was sentenced to serve a half-year in prison and to pay a fine for damages in 100 basic units for writing on the late Raman Bandarenka during the 2020–2021 Belarusian protests against Alexander Lukashenko. On April 20, 2021, Minsk City Court said no to a request to call off or change the sentence.

 Reaction 
On November 24, the human rights organization Amnesty International named her a prisoner of conscience in the Bandarenka matter. On the same day, ten organizations (the Viasna Human Rights Centre, the Belarusian Association of Journalists, the Belarusian Helsinki Committee and others) made a joint statement. It said that she is a political prisoner. Boris Haretski, deputy chairman of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, said that the authorities were not fighting the problem, but the media, “They think that if the press does not write about Bandarenka, people will not find out about it. Of course, they will know everything, but the media is still under attack."

On December 10, 2020, she was named Journalist of the Year (2020).

On December 16, 2020, support for the political prisoner was undertaken by Cem Özdemir, a member of the Bundestag.

Among the organizations who considered Barysevich's imprisonment and sentencing to be bad, included the European Federation of Journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the International Press Institute.

Together with Darya Chultsova and Katsyaryna Andreeva, on April 9, 2021, she got the Ales Lipay (the person who made BelaPAN) Prize "Honor of Journalism."

On July 14, 2021, she got the  from the Committee to Protect Journalists (organization that takes care of journalists).

On August 12, 2021, she got the .

 Personal life 
She has a daughter.

 References 

 Other websites 
 Katsyaryna Barysevich's page on the website of the Viasna Human Rights Centre

Category:1984 births
Category:Belarusian writers
Category:Belarusian journalists
Category:Political prisoners according to Viasna Human Rights Centre
Category:Free Media Award winners
Category:CPJ International Press Freedom Award winners