The Belarusian authorities has declared political commentator Artsyom Shraibman’s Telegram channel extremist.
The decision to recognise the information products on the channel Shraibman as extremist materials was taken by Chyhunachny district court of Vitsebsk; earlier, the court had obtained the corresponding information from the 7th department of the notorious GUBOPiK/GUBAZiK (the Main Directorate for Combating Organised Crime and Corruption).
“I knew that sooner or later everyone who publicly speaks out [against the regime] will be ‘extremists’, that is whyit has not come as a surprise to me <…> I don’t think the authorities are doing this because they consider me to be any threat. It is just an attempt to reduce the circulation of ‘undesirable information’ to the maximum, whether it is analytics or journalism. They want as few people as possible to read this information” Artsyom Shraibman told RFE/RL.
Artsyom Shraibman is currently staying in Ukraine. He left Belarus on June 3 on the back of state-run TV’s airing an interview in which the imprisoned blogger Raman Pratasevich mentioned him as ‘an active participant in a Telegram chat that coordinated protests in Belarus’.
By the moment, more than 300 Telegram channels and chats in Belarus are recognised as extremist.
Earlier this year, the websites of Belsat, TUT.by, Tribuna, reform.by, Deutsche Welle, Novy Chas, Current Time and others were recognised as ‘extremist’. It should be noted that the words ‘extremism’ and ‘destructive activity’ are now used by the Lukashenka regime to condemn any manifestation of dissent and protest moods.
Thus, anyone who shares news of the ‘extremist’ portals or even a photo with their logo in social networks or even private messages may be punished. Moreover, the Belarusian security officers interpret the law so that they also punish for posts and messages made before the recognition of materials as ‘extremist’. Under Article 19.11, a fine from 290 to 870 rubles may be imposed on the defendant, as well as administrative arrest and confiscation of equipment which is recognised as ‘means for committing a crime’.
