Published on •Updated
The Ministry of Information of Belarus has designated Euronews’ website as “extremist” media, adding it to its “Republican List of Extremist Materials” following a national court order, according to Belarus-based media outlets.
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The Euronews website will now be restricted in Belarus, and readers could face administrative penalties for “storing or distributing” its content, after many years in which Euronews has been the main European source of information in the country, according to Euronews’ audience data in Belarus.
The state decision was taken by the Horki District Court in the Mogilev Region on 4 August and is “subject to immediate execution in accordance with Article 302 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Republic of Belarus.” Minsk now joins Moscow in banning both Euronews’ television and digital news medias, depriving Belarus audiences of a vital source of factual and independent journalism which also covers Belarus, Russia and the war in Ukraine.
Euronews’ Editorial Director Claus Strunz condemned the decision declaring that a state that brands Euronews as “extremist” and blocks access to independent, impartial journalism reveals its own fear of free reporting.”
“We have not been informed of this decision and await the authorities’ justification. Our commitment remains unchanged: we stand with our audiences in Belarus and will continue to provide factual, independent journalism guided by our core editorial values,“ Strunz said.
Belarus authorities have yet to announce the decision and their arguments that led to this extreme ruling by which Euronews and several other digital medias are now labelled “extremist media” in Belarus.
Euronews’ television channel broadcast was banned by Belarus authorities in 2021 on a legal procedural basis, before the Kremlin decided to cut Euronews’ television and digital output across the Russian Federation right after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The independent Belarusian Association of Journalists suggested that the suspension of Euronews broadcasts was linked to attempts to restrict access to sources of information.