Svetlana Kalinkina

Svetlana Mikhailovna Kalinkina (; ; born 12 September 1970) is a Belarusian journalist known for her critical reporting of President Alexander Lukashenko.

Editorship of Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta In 2003, she was editor of Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta (BDG), a popular business daily based in Minsk.

Soon the paper was reportedly subject to a campaign of official harassment, including "politically motivated tax inspections, death threats and detentions". Belarus's Information Ministry began to harass any printer that agreed to work with the paper, forcing BDG to print in Russia. The print edition of BDG had largely disappeared from Belarus by September 2004, leaving only the website. In October 2005, pressure from the Information Ministry prevented Belarusian printers from working with the paper, forcing Kalinkina again to contract with a printer in Smolensk, Russia. Beginning on 1 January 2006, the Belarusian post office refused to distribute the paper, and an entire print run of 30,000 copies was confiscated by police on 9 January.

In April 2010, computers were seized from Kalinkina and fellow Narodnaya Volya reporter Marina Koktysh, as well as Charter 97 editor Natalya Radina and Novaya Gazeta journalist Irina Khalip as part of an investigation into a slander case filed by Ivan Korzh. The four were also brought to a police station for questioning. In September, Kalinkina wrote an article investigating the recent suspicious death of Charter 97 editor-in-chief Aleh Byabenin, and received several death threats shortly after, prompting the human rights organization Norwegian Helsinki Committee to issue an alert on her behalf.

On 29 April 2011, the Information Ministry again attempted to shut down Narodnaya Volya, filing a motion with the Supreme Economic Court of Belarus for the newspaper's closure.

After 11 years in Narodnaya Volya, Kalinkina resigned in 2016. According to her statement, she left on friendly terms with the editors office and will continue to collaborate with the newspaper as a journalist.

Recognition In 2004, the Committee to Protect Journalists awarded Kalinkina its International Press Freedom Award, "an annual recognition of courageous journalism". The award citation praised her "critical reporting on various government abuses" in the face of "years of legal and bureaucratic harassment from Belarusian authorities".

In 2015 Kalinkina received the award "For Personal Courage" from the Charter 97 organization.