No.

Date

Form of repres­sion

Descrip­tion

1.

30 Novem­ber 2020

Ban on print­ing

A Brest print­ing house refused to print Brest­skaya gaze­ta as of 1 Jan­u­ary 2021, break­ing its con­tract with the news­pa­per.

Print­ing hous­es all over Belarus refused to work with the non-gov­ern­men­tal region­al pub­li­ca­tion. The news­pa­per stopped pub­lish­ing.

On Jan­u­ary 15, the edi­to­r­i­al board informed the Min­istry of Infor­ma­tion about the sus­pen­sion of the mass media for a peri­od of six months.

2.

19 Jan­u­ary 2021

Writ­ten warn­ing

Edi­tor-in-chief Vik­tar Marchuk was sum­moned to the pros­e­cu­tor’s office and received a warn­ing.

3.

8 July 2021

Prop­er­ty search

The Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee searched the news­pa­per’s edi­to­r­i­al office, equip­ment was seized.

4.

26 Novem­ber 2021

Declar­ing web­site con­tent extrem­ist

The Lenin­s­ki Dis­trict Court of Brest ruled to rec­og­nize the con­tent of the Brest­skaya gaze­ta web­site as extrem­ist.

No.

Date

Form of repres­sion

Descrip­tion

1.

26 Jan­u­ary 2021

Prop­er­ty search

 The home of Binokl pub­lish­er was searched under the case of grand tax eva­sion. Lap­tops, flash dri­ves, phones, and seals were seized.

The apart­ment of the Binokl direc­tor was also searched. Doc­u­ments and equip­ment were seized in the office of the pub­lish­er’s wife, too. The inspec­tion was car­ried out in sev­er­al legal enti­ties asso­ci­at­ed with the fam­i­ly. Doc­u­ments, lap­tops, seals, and note­books were seized.

2.

27 Jan­u­ary 2021

Liq­ui­da­tion of the media

The pub­li­ca­tion has been liq­ui­dat­ed, and the Binokl Telegram chan­nel has been hand­ed over to the state media. The staff was dis­solved.

3.

17 June 2022

Declar­ing con­tent extrem­ist

In June 2021, unknown per­sons hacked the Binokl Telegram chan­nel and renamed it to Brest-Live.

On 17 June 2022, the Lenin­s­ki Dis­trict Court of Brest rec­og­nized the con­tent of the Brest-Live Telegram chan­nel as extrem­ist.

No.

Date

Form of repres­sion

Descrip­tion

1.

29 Decem­ber 2020

Prop­er­ty search

The Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee searched the edi­to­r­i­al office of the pub­li­ca­tion. The search also took place in the home of edi­tor-in-chief Piotr Huza­yeus­ki.

2.

9 July 2021

Prop­er­ty search

The Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee searched the edi­to­r­i­al office of the pub­li­ca­tion.

In all, more than 15 search­es and inspec­tions were con­duct­ed in the Hantsav­it­s­ki chas edi­to­r­i­al office and employ­ees’ homes in 2021.

3.

27 Decem­ber 2021

Declar­ing web­site extrem­ist

The web­site of the region­al pub­li­ca­tion is rec­og­nized as extrem­ist. The news­pa­per’s social media are still legal.

4.

2 Jan­u­ary 2021

Web­site block­ing

The Pros­e­cu­tor’s Office in Brest revealed repeat­ed vio­la­tions of the Law on Mass Media of the Repub­lic of Belarus.

5.

16 Jan­u­ary 2022

Fine

The Court in Hantsavichi fined the own­er of the web­site for spread­ing extrem­ist infor­ma­tion and imposed a fine of $4,500.

No.

Date

Form of repres­sion

Descrip­tion

1.

19 July 2021

Warn­ing by pros­e­cu­tor

The Intex-press edi­tor-in-chief received a pros­e­cu­tor’s warn­ing for pub­lish­ing an inter­view with Svi­at­lana Tikhanouskaya. On 22 April 2021 admin­is­tra­tive pro­ceed­ings were ini­ti­at­ed against him. He was pun­ished with a max­i­mum fine.

2.

28 April 2021

Refusal to dis­trib­ute news­pa­per

Bel­posh­ta did not include the pub­li­ca­tion in the sub­scrip­tion cat­a­log and refused to sell the news­pa­per.

3.

29 April 2021

Declar­ing con­tent extrem­ist

The inter­view with Svi­at­lana Tikhanouskaya was rec­og­nized as an extrem­ist arti­cle.

4.

5 May 2021

Warn­ing by Min­istry of Infor­ma­tion

The Min­istry of Infor­ma­tion issued a warn­ing to the Intex-press news­pa­per. Bel­sayuz­druk also refused to sell the pub­li­ca­tion.

5.

5 May 2021

Fine

The Brest Region­al Eco­nom­ic Court fined the Baranavichy news­pa­per $1,740 under part 4 of Art. 23.5 of the Admin­is­tra­tive Offens­es Code. The court found the media guilty of “spread­ing infor­ma­tion that is pro­hib­it­ed for dis­sem­i­na­tion.”

6.

9 May 2021

Refusal to print news­pa­per

The Belaru­sian Press House refused to print the Intex-press news­pa­per. The con­tract was ter­mi­nat­ed uni­lat­er­al­ly by the print­ing house on 9 May 2021.

7.

8 July 2021

Prop­er­ty search

The edi­to­r­i­al office was searched by KGB offi­cers. Equip­ment was seized. The search was con­duct­ed as part of the inves­ti­ga­tion of a crim­i­nal case under Part 2 of Arti­cle 289 of the Crim­i­nal Code (an act of ter­ror­ism com­mit­ted repeat­ed­ly or by a group of per­sons in col­lu­sion).

8.

29 Decem­ber 2021

Web­site block­ing

The site was blocked. The edi­to­r­i­al office received a copy of the deci­sion of the Min­is­ter of Infor­ma­tion inform­ing that the web­site was blocked for “vio­la­tion of the Law on Mass Media regard­ing the dis­sem­i­na­tion of infor­ma­tion that is pro­hib­it­ed.”

9.

12 May 2022

Prop­er­ty search

The Intex-press edi­to­r­i­al office was searched in con­nec­tion with the case of the detained polit­i­cal pris­on­er Yury Hantsare­vich, who was charged under part 1 of Arti­cle 361–4 of the Crim­i­nal Code (pro­mo­tion of extrem­ist activ­i­ty).

As a result of the search, pho­to­graph­ic equip­ment was seized.

No.

Date

Form of repres­sion

Descrip­tion

1.

9 July 2021

Prop­er­ty search

The Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee searched the edi­to­r­i­al office of the pub­li­ca­tion.

29 July 2021

Refusal to print news­pa­per

The Inform-progul­ka news­pa­per stopped being print­ed.

The print­ing house has ter­mi­nat­ed the con­tract with the edi­to­r­i­al office.

21 Sep­tem­ber 2021

Fine

The Brest Region Eco­nom­ic Court fined Inform-progul­ka $1,160 for harm­ing the nation­al inter­ests of the Repub­lic of Belarus.

No.

Date

Form of repres­sion

Descrip­tion

1.

6 April 2020

Warn­ing

The Min­istry of Infor­ma­tion issued a warn­ing to the own­er of the online media Media-Polesye (media-polesye.by) for pub­lish­ing inac­cu­rate infor­ma­tion in an arti­cle on coro­n­avirus.

3 August 2020

Admin­is­tra­tive report

A report was drawn up against the Media-Polesye pub­li­ca­tion for “threat­en­ing the nation­al secu­ri­ty of the coun­try.”

The arti­cle about Svi­at­lana Tikhanouskaya in Media-Polesye alleged­ly “harmed the nation­al inter­ests of the Repub­lic of Belarus, con­tributed to the aggra­va­tion of social ten­sion in soci­ety, cre­at­ed pan­ic moods, lead to mass mis­in­for­ma­tion of the pop­u­la­tion, and vio­lat­ed the con­sti­tu­tion­al right of cit­i­zens to receive com­plete, reli­able, and time­ly infor­ma­tion.”

17 Novem­ber 2020

Fine

The court fined Media-Polesye

9 July 2021

Prop­er­ty search

As part of a ter­ror­ist crim­i­nal case, the KGB inves­tiga­tive teams searched the office of Media-Polesye, as well as the homes of the edi­tor-in-chief and edi­to­r­i­al staff.

20 July 2021

Tri­al

An admin­is­tra­tive tri­al was held against Media-Polesye because of the pub­li­ca­tion about the par­tic­i­pants of the “Pin­sk mas­sacre” (the pub­lic unrest in Pin­sk fol­low­ing the elec­tion day).

On 28 July 2021, the Luninets Dis­trict Court pun­ished Media-Polesye with a fine of $2,300 for rewrit­ing an arti­cle about the “Pin­sk mas­sacre.”

8 April 2022

Declar­ing con­tent extrem­ist

The court rec­og­nized the con­tent of Media-Polesye web­site, as well as VKon­tak­te and Odnok­lass­ni­ki groups, as extrem­ist.