The Belarusian PEN Center on October 26 awarded its 2019 Ales Adamovich Prize to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) Belarus Service journalist Anastasia Zaharevich and former Belarus Service veteran cultural reporter, Viachaslau Rakitskii.
The Ales Adamovich Prize was founded by the Belarusian PEN Center in 1995 for journalism.
Zaharevich received the award for her blog, which covers issues relating to violence and discrimination. Zakahrevich's columns on gender issues have been appearing in Radio Svaboda, as the Service is known locally, for the past three years. Rakitski was honored for his documentary series "Witnesses" for the Belsat TV network.
Upon receiving the award, Zacharevich commented, “I am very glad that issues concerning feminism, discrimination and violence are raised in society and are recognized as important ones. I hope that my blog will become unnecessary one day because these problems will not exist in Belarus anymore. In the meantime, we will live, work and fight.”
In addition, Radio Svaboda's long-term journalist Siarhiej Shupa received the Carlos Sherman Prize Award for his translation of the novel Monday, by Belarusian Yiddish-language writer Moyshe Kulbak. At the award ceremony, Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich was elected the new chairwoman of Belarusian PEN.