Journalist Palina Pitkevich on trial

The KGB con­sid­ers her involved in the “extrem­ist for­ma­tion” Medi­aIQ — a Press Club Belarus project aimed at improv­ing media lit­er­a­cy.

Pali­na Pitke­vich. Pho­to: Social media

On March 7, 2025, the Min­sk City Court will begin the tri­al of jour­nal­ist Pali­na Pitke­vich. She is accused of par­tic­i­pat­ing in an “extrem­ist for­ma­tion.”

In June 2024, the Belaru­sian KGB des­ig­nat­ed the Medi­aIQ project as an extrem­ist for­ma­tion and list­ed Pitke­vich among its mem­bers. Around the same time, her social media accounts were last active.

Pali­na Pitke­vich was born in 1994 and grad­u­at­ed from the Fac­ul­ty of Jour­nal­ism at Belaru­sian State Uni­ver­si­ty in 2016. She had a pas­sion for the­ater and, for a time, per­formed as an actress in the Social The­ater Lab­o­ra­to­ry in Min­sk. As a jour­nal­ist, she wrote about cul­ture.

Pali­na is also known for her love of ani­mals — her social media pages fea­ture numer­ous posts about help­ing stray pets. Accord­ing to friends, she had res­cued mul­ti­ple cats and kept some at home.

Pitke­vich faces up to four years of restrict­ed free­dom or a prison sen­tence rang­ing from two to six years.