Katsyaryna Andreyeva (Bakhvalava) was born in 1993 into a family of several generations of Minsk intellectuals. After Katsya graduated from gymnasium №23 in Minsk, she entered the Spanish faculty of Minsk State Linguistic University. In 2013 she enrolled in a volunteer program of the European Commission to Spain, where she spent two years. In 2014 she returned home. Since then, Katsyaryna has devoted herself entirely to journalism. She collaborated with RFE/RL and the Ukrainian project “Donbas. Realities”. Her work has been published in the newspaper “Narodnaya Volya” and the Russian Novaya Gazeta. In March 2017, she became a reporter for Belsat TV in Minsk. As a correspondent, she visited Ukraine and Spain. In co-authorship with Ihar Ilyash, Katsyaryna prepared several high-profile journalistic investigations, and in 2020 they published a documentary book, “Belarusian Donbas,” about the role of Belarusians in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Over the past year, the book had two editions. During the hot summer of 2020 in Belarus, Katsyaryna covered peaceful rallies, reporting live from the streets of Minsk. She was arrested on November 15 for broadcasting at a violent dispersal of a gathering in memory of murdered protester Raman Bandarenka. After the rally, armed riot police broke the door to the apartment where Katsyaryna and Darya were hiding. On November 20, they were charged under Part 1 of Article 342 of the Criminal Code (organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order). On February 18, 2021, the Frunzenski district court of Minsk sentenced Katsiaryna and Darya to two years of imprisonment. Twice (in 2017 and 2020), Katsiaryna was recognized as Belsat’s “Television Person of the Year”. She was also a laureate of the BAJ “Free Speech” contest. In 2020 she received the “The Hope of Freedom” award from the Lithuanian Association of Journalists. In 2021 Katsyaryna was nominated for the Dariusz Fikus Award by the Press Club of Poland and the Ales Lipay Award in Belarus.