Larisa Shchiryakova (Russian: Лариса Щирякова) is a Belarusian journalist who freelances for Belsat.
Shchiryakova has been implementing European Commission civil society projects in Belarus since 2009. She worked with a youth group, Talaka, to create and disseminate communally-oriented videos in Gomel city.[1] Despite the apolitical nature of her work [?], government authorities have targeted her in a larger campaign of press censorship. Police detained her along with 34 others on 13 July 2011 for her reporting.[2] In August 2012, police detained Schiryakova and three others after they tried to videotape a cultural festival.[3] On 22 October 2012, the regional prosecutor's office summoned her on suspicion of working for a foreign media outlet without government accreditation. The summons followed Shchiryakova's public comments criticizing the state's treatment of Viasna Human Rights Centre personnel.[4] The State Security Committee (KGB) detained her in December 2014.[5] In January 2015, Shchiryakova and Konstantin Zhukovsky were fined 900,000 rubles for participating in a picket in Svietlahorsk, which they had covered in the media. On 8 March 2015, she was brought before police authorities again for illegally interviewing businessmen on camera, asking about the effects of new taxes on entrepreneurs.[6] She was fined $3.6 million rubles on 12 March.[7] Gomel City Court found her guilty of violating Article 22.9 of the Criminal Code, "illegal dissemination of media products," on 13 January 2016. She was fined $250.[8]