{"id":182112,"date":"2026-04-02T20:43:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T17:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/182112\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T20:43:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T17:43:35","slug":"belarus-bans-content-of-defunct-voa-russian-service-for-distribution","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/182112\/","title":{"rendered":"Belarus bans content of defunct VoA Russian service for distribution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>April<\/strong><strong> 2, <\/strong><strong><em>Pozirk<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>.<\/em><\/strong> Belarus has declared golosameriki.com, the website of the Russian service of Voice of America, which was closed down by US President Trump and has not been updated since March 15, 2025, \u201cextremist\u201d content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It also blacklisted the Instagram account of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) and the Threads account of LIBERECO \u2014 Partnership for Human Rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier this week it prohibited the BBC content for distribution in Belarus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BBC dismissed the \u201cextremist\u201d label as an attempt to criminalize independent journalism, in comments posted on March 31.&nbsp;<\/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 they are 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 posted 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<div class=\"insert-block\">\n\n    <div class=\"insert-block__img\">\n        <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"354\" height=\"236\" src=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/pressa_global_look_press-354x236.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/pressa_global_look_press-354x236.jpg 354w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/pressa_global_look_press-734x490.jpg 734w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/pressa_global_look_press-178x118.jpg 178w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/pressa_global_look_press-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/pressa_global_look_press.jpg 1128w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 354px) 100vw, 354px\" \/>                        <label class=\"insert-block__tag--mobile\"> \u041f\u043e\u043b\u0438\u0442\u0438\u043a\u0430<\/label>\n\n                <\/div>\n    <div class=\"insert-block__text\">\n                    <label class=\"insert-block__tag\">\u041f\u043e\u043b\u0438\u0442\u0438\u043a\u0430<\/label>\n                <h3 class=\"insert-block__title\">BBC dismisses \u201cextremist\u201d label as attempt to criminalize journalism<\/h3>\n        <div class=\"insert-block__descr\">April 1, Pozirk. BBC has dismissed the \u201cextremist\u201d label given by Belarus as an attempt to criminalize independent journalism, in comments posted on March 31.\u00a0 The corporation expressed deep concern about the consequences of this decision for the \u201chundreds of &#8230;<\/div>\n        <a class=\"insert-block__btn-block\" href=\"\/en\/news\/181895\">\n            <button class=\"btn\">\n                <div class='btn__text'>Read<\/div>\n            <\/button>\n        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>April 2, Pozirk. Belarus has declared golosameriki.com, the website of the Russian service of Voice of America, which was closed down by US President Trump and has not been updated since March 15, 2025, \u201cextremist\u201d content. It also blacklisted the Instagram account of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) and the Threads account of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":83281,"template":"","rubric":[14],"class_list":["post-182112","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>Belarus bans content of defunct VoA Russian service for distribution | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"April 2, Pozirk. Belarus has declared golosameriki.com, the website of the Russian service of Voice of America, which was closed down by US President\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/182112\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Belarus bans content of defunct VoA Russian service for distribution | Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"April 2, Pozirk. Belarus has declared golosameriki.com, the website of the Russian service of Voice of America, which was closed down by US President\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/182112\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-02T17:43:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/pressa_global_look_press.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1128\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"752\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Pozirk_online\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/182112\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/182112\/\"},\"headline\":\"Belarus bans content of defunct VoA Russian service for distribution\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-02T17:43:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-02T17:43:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/182112\/\"},\"wordCount\":246,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/182112\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/pressa_global_look_press.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/182112\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/182112\/\",\"name\":\"Belarus bans content of defunct VoA Russian service for distribution | Pozirk\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/182112\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/182112\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/pressa_global_look_press.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-02T17:43:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-02T17:43:35+00:00\",\"description\":\"April 2, Pozirk. 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