The Belarus journalist Irina Khalip - a correspondent for the Moscow-based Novaya Gazeta - has been given a two-year suspended jail sentence on a charge of helping to organise, and take part in, a protest rally.
Khalip is the wife of Andrei Sannikov, who is serving a five-year sentence after being convicted of causing mass unrest following the disputed re-election last December by President Alexander Lukashenko.
Sannikov was one of five presidential candidates who was arrested after the election protest.
Khalip a member of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, is the recipient of an award, by the Central European Initiative and the South and East Europe Media Organisation, for her outstanding contribution to investigative journalism.
The International Press Institute press freedom manager Anthony Mills said: "We are concerned that Irina Khalip appears to be paying the price for her activities as a journalist."
In response to events in Belarus, which include the jailing of dissidents and a clamp on press freedom, both the EU and US have imposed travel restrictions on Lukashenko.
Source: IPI
