December 3, Pozirk. The Belarusian government’s list of extremist content, a key censorship guide, contained 6,565 entries on November 1, the Viasna Human Rights Center said, noting that its expansion has no limits.
“Commissions, and then courts, examine and evaluate content from the point of view of its undesirability to the regime, not from the point of view of true extremism . . . As long as there are overly broad definitions and the political will, the process of recognition of content as extremist risks being endless due to the lack of specific and limiting grounds,” Viasna stressed.
Special commissions – national, regional and in the city of Minsk – play a key role in designating posts, social media accounts and media articles extremist content because they examine requests from government agencies fighting extremism, such as the interior and information ministries, the Committee for State Security (KGB), prosecutors’ offices and the State Border Committee, to refer cases to court.
After assessment, cases are referred to court for a final review. Judges examine the referrals behind closed doors, the human rights activists noted.
After content is designated as extremist, the information ministry adds the designated content to the list, without disclosing what is illegal about it.
The anti-extremism law does not specify a procedure for removing information products from the list.
The Code of Administrative Offenses carries a fine or up to 15 days in jail for sharing or storing the blacklisted content.
