Jailed journalists win EU's top human rights award

Two journalists, one imprisoned in Belarus and the other in Georgia, have won the European Union's top human rights honour, the Sakharov Prize, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola announced on Wednesday.

Andrzej Poczobut is a correspondent for the influential Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza. He was convicted of "harming Belarus' national security" and sentenced to eight years, which he is serving in the Novopolotsk penal colony.

Mzia Amaghlobeli, a prominent journalist who founded two of Georgia's independent media outlets, was in August convicted of slapping a police chief during an anti-government protest. She was sentenced to two years in prison in a case that was condemned by rights groups as an attempt to curb media freedom.