Malanka Media branded extremist group

February 15, BPN. The Belarusian interior ministry has blacklisted Malanka Media, its social media and messengers, as an extremist group, its website says.

Malanka Media is an independent media outlet founded by Belarusian journalists based abroad. It runs two YouTube channels with over 136,000 subscribers as well as TikTok and Telegram accounts with 63,000 and 2,600 subscribers, respectively.

The interior ministry has been using anti-extremism laws to silence media outlets critical of the government.

Its list of extremist groups has a 116 entries, including 13 media outlets, such as BelaPAN, Belsat TV, RFE/RL Belarus Service, Naša Niva, Euroradio and others.

The popular news portal tut.by that authorities crushed in May 2021, is not on the list, but the Supreme Court blacklisted its founding entity, Tut By Media, as an extremist group in June 2022.