On November 19, a ceremony for the 2025 Freedom of Expression Awards, presented annually by Index on Censorship, took place in London. This award has become a symbol of solidarity with those who continue to fight for free speech and democratic change despite repression by authoritarian regimes.
This year’s laureate of the Trustees Award is Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. She dedicated the award to journalists and all Belarusians who have sacrificed their freedom for the truth:
“Dear Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy,
Dear Sir Trevor Phillips,
Dear Ms. Jemimah Steinfeld,
Dear jury and laureates, Ladies and gentlemen!
Tonight, I am proud — and “proud” is maybe too weak a word.
I accept this award on behalf of all Belarusians who refuse to give up their dignity, their voice, and their future.
Index on Censorship has been one of the most tireless supporters of our democratic movement.
You wrote about Belarus when others looked away.
You published letters from our political prisoners when the regime tried to silence them.
You built that unforgettable exhibition of Belarusian political prisoners last year. And dear Jemimah — yes, we even wrote an op-ed together!
Big thanks to the entire Index team for your everyday work that gives voice to those who are forced to be silent. Thank you!
I’m glad to see many good old friends today, like David Lammy and his wife Nicola Green.
Like Bianca Jagger, Jimmy Wales and many others.
People who never stay silent when truth is under attack.
It’s an honor for me to share this award with people whom I deeply admire. With artists and journalists from around the whole world. And with last year’s laureate Evgenija Kara-Murza.
Last year, her husband came home from Putin’s prison. This year, my husband Siarhei was released from Lukashenka’s Gulag.
He spent five years in solitary confinement. For two years, we haven’t heard anything from him. I didn’t know if he was alive. They tried to convince him that everyone forgot about him. They tried to break him. But they failed.
There are thousands of families like ours in Belarus. Waiting for their loved ones to come home from prison cells. And we will never stop fighting until all 1300 Belarusian political prisoners are free.
Dear friends,
I want to dedicate this award to those who sacrificed their freedom for their right to tell the truth. To our imprisoned journalists.
Andrei Poczobut, Katsiaryna Andreeva, her husband Ihar Illyash, Liudmila Chekina, Dzianis Ivashyn, Maryna Zolatava, Valeryia Kasciuhova, Iryna Zlobina.
To Andrei Aliaksandrau, a former member of Index, whose letters you published in Index on Censorship project.
To our Nobel Peace Prize winner and lifelong freedom fighter, Ales Bialiatski.
And to all the 33 media workers who are behind bars today.
The regime could not silence them, so it locked them up.
But their voices still break through — because truth travels even through prison walls.
As Ales Bialiatski said: Nothing can stop people’s thirst for freedom. And he is right.
I dedicate this award to Belarusians who were sentenced to years in prison simply for expressing an opinion online… against the dictator, or in support of Ukraine.
For a comment…A repost… A “like”… Or even for wearing socks in the colors of our national flag.
They say: “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” Well — in Belarus, they don’t even let the truth put on its socks.
Dictators fear the truth. They fear art. They fear jokes. They fear free people. But the truth is patient. And it always outlives dictators.
Dear friends,
Thank you for standing with Belarus, with Ukraine, and with all who fight for freedom.
Thank you for giving a platform to those who are denied a voice.
As Andrei Aliaksandrau — a devoted Liverpool fan (Sorry, it’s not Tottenham, David) — loves to say: “We’ll never walk alone.”
With friends like you — we truly won’t. Thank you very much.
Slava Ukraini. And Long Live Belarus!”.
