Hanna Liubakova

Hanna Liubakova is an exiled journalist and political analyst from Belarus. She is a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and has written about developments in Belarus for international outlets including The Washington Post, The Economist, and others. Liubakova began her career at Belsat TV, the only independent Belarusian television channel, banned by the regime in Minsk. She also worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) in Prague, Czechia. She is currently writing a book about Belarus.

Liubakova has received several awards for her work, including the Freedom of the Media Award from the Transatlantic Leadership Network and the One Young World Journalist of the Year Award. She was also a finalist for the European Press Prize. In retaliation for her reporting, the Lukashenka regime sentenced her in absentia to ten years in prison. She is on the wanted list in Russia and across all CIS countries.

She holds an MA with distinction in International Journalism from Brunel University London, where she was awarded the Peter Caws Prize for the best postgraduate dissertation in 2017.

During her residency at Reid Hall, Liubakova will focus on completing her book Exiled Voice: Preserving Belarus’s Story, under contract with Bloomsbury Academic. The book blends investigative reporting, personal narrative, and political analysis to document the Belarusian resistance movement since 2020, highlighting voices often overlooked in Western media — including political prisoners, underground educators, digital dissidents, and women leaders.