{"id":170272,"date":"2026-01-01T13:03:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T10:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/170272\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","slug":"censorship-pardons-instances-of-persecution-documented-on-december-30-31","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/170272\/","title":{"rendered":"Censorship, pardons, instances of persecution documented on December 30, 31"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>January 1, <em>Pozirk.<\/em><\/strong> In its relentless campaign of censorship, the Belarusian information ministry declared more than 22 social media accounts \u201cextremist content\u201d on December 30 and 31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The blacklisted pages include the Telegram communities and chats discussing politics, religion, history, LGBT dating and a group of skinheads: <em>\u0427\u0430\u0442<\/em><em> \u041d\u0430\u0446<\/em><em>i\u043e\u043d\u0430\u043b\u044c\u043d\u043e<\/em><em>\u00ef \u0413\u0440\u043e\u043c\u0430\u0434\u0438<\/em>, <em>\u041a\u0443\u043b\u044c\u0442\u0443\u0440\u0430<\/em><em> \u0414\u0432\u0438\u0436\u0430<\/em>, <em>\u041a\u043e\u043d\u0446\u043b\u0430\u0433\u0435\u0440\u044c<\/em><em> 19<\/em>, <em>\u041f\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0445\u043e\u0434\u043d\u0438\u043a<\/em>, <em>\u03a8\u03a8 <\/em><em>\u0411\u0435\u043b\u044b\u0439<\/em><em> \u041a\u0440\u0430\u0439<\/em><em> \u03a8\u03a8<\/em>, <em>\u0447\u0430\u0442<\/em><em> \u0434\u043b\u044f<\/em><em> \u043d\u0435\u0444\u043e\u0440\u043e\u0432<\/em>, <em>\u0417\u043d\u0430\u043a\u043e\u043c\u0441\u0442\u0432\u0430<\/em><em> \u2022 \u041b\u0413\u0411\u0422<\/em><em> | \u0427\u0410\u0422<\/em>, <em>\u0447\u0430\u0442<\/em><em> \u0420\u0443\u0441\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0435<\/em><em> \u0421\u043a\u0438\u043d\u0445\u0435\u0434\u044b<\/em>, <em>\u0441\u0435\u043c\u044c\u044f<\/em><em> \u0417\u0411\u0421<\/em>, <em>\u043c\u0443\u0441\u0443\u043b\u044c\u043c\u0430\u043d\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439<\/em><em> \u0447\u0430\u0442<\/em>, <em>\u0411\u0430\u0437\u043e\u0432\u044b\u0439<\/em><em> \u0427\u0430\u0442\u0438\u043a<\/em>, <em>Age of History\/Civilizations III Best<\/em>, <em>\u0420\u041c\u041e<\/em><em> | chat<\/em>, <em>\u0418\u0441\u043f\u043e\u0432\u0435\u0434\u044c<\/em><em>, Bibliothek<\/em>, <em>NS Bibliothek<\/em>; <em>freeshop_fundacja_zyvi<\/em> and <em>minskoblastnovosti55<\/em> on Instagram; the Tiktok account <em>Information<\/em>; and the YouTube channel <em>\u0410\u043b\u0435\u043a\u0441\u0435\u0439<\/em><em> \u0413\u043e\u043d\u0447\u0430\u0440\u0435\u043d\u043a\u043e<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The government introduced the \u201cextremist content\u201d designation in the wake of the 2020 mass protests against election fraud to punish Belarusians for following critical media outlets and social media accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Belarusian law enforcement officers randomly check people\u2019s phones to see who are they following. Those found to possess or share links to banned media and accounts are punished by fines or jail sentences of up to 15 days under Article 19.11 of the Administrative Offenses Code. It does not carry any punishment for those producing banned content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Police forced some of those arrested to confess to following \u201cextremist\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The extremist content list contains thousands of entries, so it is actually hard for people to follow it and delete blacklisted content from their devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Belarus\u2019 interior ministry on December 31 added 22 names to its list of extremists, which currently has 6,149 entries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thirteen of the additions were convicted of extremism-related or protest-related crimes and of exciting social hatred and appear to be serving their \u201crestricted freedom\u201d sentences in home confinement:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Ksienija Nie\u015bciaruk<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Julija H\u0142u\u0161a\u0144<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ihar Astap\u010duk<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Juryj Kanaplo\u016d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Viktar Ha\u016dry\u0142aviec<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Viktar Andra\u0161uk<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>U\u0142adzis\u0142a\u016d Pin\u010duk<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Arciom Sikorski<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Leanid Ma\u0142acha\u016d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Volha Sitnik<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Alaksiej Alaksiej\u010dyk<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Valancina Lohvin<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Raman Do\u0142bik<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The following individuals are serving their sentences in correctional facilities:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Anatol Rybak<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Alaksandar Brylo\u016d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Viktar Antu\u0161evi\u010d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pavie\u0142 Pietra\u017eycki<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Alaksandra D\u017amitryjeva<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Illa Pracenka<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Alaksandar Vajtko<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Illa Baryskievi\u010d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Iryna Nika\u0142ajeva was convicted but not sentenced because of the expiration of the statute of limitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The interior ministry claimed to identify as many as 1,341 \u201cextremists\u201d last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On December 30, Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka has pardoned 15 women and seven men, most of whom were imprisoned on extremism-related charges that Belarusian authorities use to persecute political opponents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They all admitted their guilt and asked the Belarusian ruler for clemency, <em>Pul Pervogo<\/em>, his press office\u2019s unofficial Telegram channel says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>About 360 designated political prisoners were pardoned last year, including 143 in December, the Viasna Human Rights Center said, noting that at least 509 people were imprisoned in 2025 on charges widely seen as politically motivated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A total of 9,282 people have faced politically-motivated criminal prosecution in Belarus since 2020, with more than 8,000 convicted of criminal offences in such cases, the group said in its recent report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As of December 31, human rights defenders identified at least 1,131 political prisoners, including 167 women and nearly 170 individuals listed as particularly vulnerable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since May 2020, rights groups have designated a total of 4,339 people as political prisoners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>January 1, Pozirk. In its relentless campaign of censorship, the Belarusian information ministry declared more than 22 social media accounts \u201cextremist content\u201d on December 30 and 31. The blacklisted pages include the Telegram communities and chats discussing politics, religion, history, LGBT dating and a group of skinheads: \u0427\u0430\u0442 \u041d\u0430\u0446i\u043e\u043d\u0430\u043b\u044c\u043d\u043e\u00ef \u0413\u0440\u043e\u043c\u0430\u0434\u0438, \u041a\u0443\u043b\u044c\u0442\u0443\u0440\u0430 \u0414\u0432\u0438\u0436\u0430, \u041a\u043e\u043d\u0446\u043b\u0430\u0433\u0435\u0440\u044c 19, \u041f\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0445\u043e\u0434\u043d\u0438\u043a, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":63993,"template":"","rubric":[16],"class_list":["post-170272","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","rubric-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Censorship, pardons, instances of persecution documented on December 30, 31 | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"January 1, Pozirk. 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