Belarusian political prisoners awarded in London

The leading human rights organization, Index on Censorship, gave Freedom of Expression awards at the Royal Institution in the UK.

This year prizes were given in four nominations: the New Media Award, the Intelligent Life Arts Award, the Bindmans Law and Campaigning Award, and The Guardian Journalism Award. Belarusian political prisoners were awarded a Special Commendation.

British Sikh playwright Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, Iranian director Jafar Panahi, and Indian artist Maqbool Fida (MF) Husain were nominated for the Intelligent Life Arts Award. The award was given to MF Husain.

TuniLeaks, a Tunisian information portal, Egyptian TorProject.org, and Chinese blogger Wen Yunchao were named as nominees for the New Media Award. The prize was awarded to TuniLeaks, a portal uniting the Tunisian bloggers, whose influence on the events in Tunis and President Ben Ali’s overthrow is indisputable.

Chinese lawyer Gao Zhisheng, a winner of the Bindmans Law and Campaigning award, was not able to attend the awards ceremony. Having been arrested by the Chinese authorities, he has been kept in an unknown place since February 2009. There was no news on him for about a year, but the Chinese authorities admitted the fact of his arrest in 2010.

The nominees for the Guardian Journalism Awards were Chiranuch Premchaiporn, the co-founder of the Thai online news site Prachatai (“Thai people”), and Ibrahim Eissa, Egypt’s leading independent editor, often described as a “one-man barometer of Egypt’s struggle for political and civic freedom”.

Belarus’s prisoners of conscience were awarded a Special Commendation. on behalf of the Belarusian political prisoners the prize was accepted by presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov’s sister Iryna Bahdanava, Ales Mikhalevich’s sister-in-law Elena Edwards, and director of the Belarus Free Theatre Natallia Kaliada. British playwright Sir Tom Stoppard and Natallia Kaliada made speeches before the awarding.

Natallia Kaliada said, “Belarusian journalist Natallya Radzina was nominated for this award. She said after the ceremony she knew ‘there are people who deserve the prize more than I, but the very fact of awarding is not important; what is important is that Belarus must be discussed, because it deservers the same attention as any other country facing the problems that we face.’ One year passed, and things are different now. When Mike from Index on Censorship landed in Minsk to watch our performances, he found himself at funeral – our very close friend Aleh Byabenin was found dead. It the beginning of the events on December 19 and is going on now.”

Head of Index on Censorship John Kampfner and Booker prize-winning novelist Howard Jacobson addressed the audience at the awards ceremony hosted by British legendary journalist Jonathan Dimbleby.

A charity auction was held after the ceremony. The money raised (£14.550) went to human rights projects.

Natallia Kaliada, Iryna Bahdanava, Tom Stoppard, and Howard Jacobson

Jonathan Dimbleby hosting the ceremony

The hall of the Royal Institute of Great Britain

Booker prize-winning novelist Howard Jacobson

Sami Ben Gharbia, a representative of TuniLeaks, the winner of the New Media award

A video address of the wife lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who won the Bindmans Law and Campaigning Award

Indian artist MF Husain, the winner of the Intelligent Life Arts Award

Journalism Award winner editor Ibrahim Eissa

A guitar of Dire Straits’ leader Mark Knopfler, a lot at the charity auction

Ales Mikhalevich’s sister-in-law Elena Edwards, Andrei Sannikov’s sister Iryna Bahdanava, and head of the Belarus Free Theatre Natallia Kaliada, who represented the Belarusian political prisoners at the awards ceremony