The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland has awarded the Lech Wałęsa Solidarity Prize to Mzia Amaglobeli, founder of the Batumelebi and Netgazeti media outlets.
The award was presented to Amaglobeli in recognition of her contributions to promoting and upholding democratic values.
The award ceremony took place in Warsaw. On behalf of Mzia Amaglobeli, the prize was accepted by Batumelebi representative Irma Dimitradze from Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Radosław Sikorski. Wałęsa himself was also present at the ceremony.
“Now it is Georgia’s turn to receive help. The Lech Wałęsa Solidarity Prize goes to Mzia Amaglobeli. She is an anti-corruption Georgian journalist and the founder of two independent Georgian media outlets. In 2025, she was sentenced on politically motivated charges to two years in prison for slapping the Batumi police chief, making her the first female political prisoner in independent Georgia,” Lech Wałęsa wrote on social media.
The Solidarity Prize, named after the renowned Polish statesman and Nobel laureate Lech Wałęsa, was established on the initiative of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2014.
The award is presented to individuals or organizations that have made an exceptional contribution to promoting and defending democracy and civil liberties, acting in the spirit of international solidarity to advance freedom and democracy worldwide.
Past laureates of the prize include Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev (2014); journalist and civic activist Zhanna Nemtsova, daughter of the assassinated Russian politician Boris Nemtsov (2015); Belarusian dissident Pavel Latushko (2024); and Cuban dissident and leader of the Ladies in White movement Berta Soler Fernández (2025).
Lech Wałęsa is the historic leader of the Polish Solidarity movement and a former President of Poland. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983.
Mzia Amaglobeli has been incarcerated for one year and eight months. She was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment under Part 1 of Article 353 of the Criminal Code of Georgia (resisting a police officer).
While in detention, Mzia Amaglobeli has received numerous prestigious honors, and on December 16, 2025, she was awarded the European Union’s highest human rights accolade—the Sakharov Prize—at the European Parliament.
“I accept this award on behalf of all the political prisoners who are unjustly serving time in prison and are deemed ‘suspects’ in the struggle for Georgia’s European future,” Mzia Amaglobeli declared in an address to the European Parliament, conveyed from the women’s penal colony in Rustavi.