December 9, Pozirk. The Committee for State Security (KGB) designated the Hrodna-based news website s13.ru and its followers on social media as an “extremist group” on November 5, the interior ministry has reported.
In October, authorities already banned s13.ru and its Telegram page as “extremist content.”
On Saturday, its founder Siarhiej Čaboćka was not freed after serving three consecutive 15-day sentences. His current condition is unknown.
In addition, security forces declared the Maris Mar’s City Garden, Belarus ID and Pismo.bel projects as extremist groups.
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 last week.
“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.
