Hanna Valynets comes from a small city named Vileyka in Belarus. She spent 15 years in Minsk and, after the uprising of 2020–2021, fled to Lithuania. Since September 2021, she has been working in exile from Vilnius.

Her experience includes freelance journalism since 2009 (or earlier, depending on how it’s counted), with collaborations involving more than 35 media outlets and publications in over 10 languages. Her dream was to work in investigative journalism, but after not finding a team where she felt she fit in, she decided to build her own. Since October 2024, she and six colleagues from media and expert fields have been working together as a team. She aims to build a flat-structure team, which she sees as the most sustainable management model. Currently, the team is focused on delegating operational management tasks and learning new methodologies.

Their model of work is based on collaboration with both media and NGOs. NGOs often hold sensitive information and are willing to share it, while media outlets typically lack the resources to produce time- and resource-intensive investigations. Her team covers those gaps while fundraising independently.

During the first year of their work, they conducted more than eight research projects using complex methodologies, including sociological studies in Belarus with over 1,000 respondents and investigations into extremely sensitive information, such as KGB oppression tactics.

In March 2025, Hanna was officially accused by the KGB of being the creator of an “extremist formation,” a charge she considers entirely political. She remains proud of her work and is determined to keep moving forward.