Pozirk.online branded extremist content

December 8, Pozirk. A district judge in Minsk on December 5 declared pozirk.online extremist content banned for distribution.
The ruling comes just two months after exiled BelaPAN journalists launched the website and two years after the Committee for State Security (KGB) branded the news agency an extremist group, forcing it to stop operation and journalists to go into exile.
Three former BelaPAN executives are serving sentences of four to 14 years in prison after being convicted of extremism-related and other crimes. The updated extremist content list includes Radyjo Svaboda and its social media accounts, Salidarnasc, the Belarusian Information Center in Lviv, the belsat_ua account in Tiktok, politvyazynka in Instagram, and politician Valeryj Cepkala’s Facebook page, as well as the history book Горькие годы: Трагедия Западной Беларуси 1944–1954 (Bitter Years: Tragedy of Western Belarus 1944-54) by Alaksandar Tatarenka. Published in 2017, the book is based on archive documents concerning the operation of the secret police, NKVD, in Belarus.
Belarusian law enforcers randomly check people’s phones to see who are they following. Those found to possess or share extremist content are punished by exorbitant fines or short jail sentences.
Police force some of those arrested to confess to following “extremist” content before a video camera and then post forced confessions on Telegram accounts to intimidate the public. State television journalists have been involved in recording forced confessions.
- SocietyTrain crew quickly contains blaze at Pahodzina stationThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- Politics
- Politics
- PoliticsBelarus to open consulate general in Tatarstan for six Russian regionsThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- PoliticsReprisals: admin accused of filming Russian military hardwareThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- Politics, SecurityRussian-born Butraniec appointed as deputy chairman of State Border CommitteeThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- Politics, SecurityLithuania, Latvia report a spike in irregular border crossing attemptsThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- EconomyBelarusian steelmaker scales back output to maintain profitabilityThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- Society
- PoliticsBelarus' FM accuses the West of impeding development of other countriesThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- Politics
- Economy
- EconomyBelarus to raise subsistence minimum budget on May 1The material is available only to POZIRK+
- PoliticsOpposition politician slams prison sentences against Kalinoŭski fighters as revengeThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- SocietyGovernment allows hunting bears, lynxesThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- Politics, SecurityJournalists expose Belarusian company’s links with Russian defense industryThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- PoliticsRights groups declare seven new political prisonersThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- PoliticsReprisals: jailed activist Kaleśnikava turns 43The material is available only to POZIRK+
- Politics, SecurityMinsk court sentences five Belarusian volunteer fighters to lengthy prison termsThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- SocietyMore than 17,000 Belarusians visited Georgia in Q1The material is available only to POZIRK+
- Politics, SecurityArmy battalion conducting offensive exercise near AsipovičyThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- Economy
- PoliticsUN experts sound alarm over forced psychiatric treatment of Belarusian dissidentsThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- Economy
- Economy
- PoliticsRights group reports raids in Dziaržynsk, exiled Belarusians targetedThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- Society
- PoliticsSikorski, Rubio discuss migration crisis at Polish-Belarusian borderThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- PoliticsReprisals: police punish criticism of Łukašenka’s policiesThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- PoliticsCatholic priest free after reported April 23 arrestThe material is available only to POZIRK+