The Belarusian authorities recognized the Internet resources of the Belsat TV channel, which actively covered the protests, as an extremist formation

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus recognized the Internet resources of the Polish TV channel “Belsat” as an extremist formation, reported in the department’s Telegram channel.

“By the decision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it was recognized as an extremist formation and the activity on the territory of the Republic of Belarus of a group of citizens united through the Internet resources of Belsat was banned,” it was reported.

Deputy Director of Belsat Aleksey Dikovitsky told VotTak that the channel will continue to operate as usual. “Honestly, I would like to send them unprintable. They no longer know what else to come up with. The inflation of ideas among the state bodies of Belarus happened. What could this decision mean? Do not know. Anything. Now, even according to the crooked laws invented by them, this is impossible to understand. We will just continue to work for our viewers, readers and subscribers in social networks, as we have always done, ”said Dikovitsky.

After the decision on Belsat, 11 organizations, formations, individual entrepreneurs were included in the list of those involved in extremist activities. notes Interfax.

Belsat is a satellite TV channel established in 2007 under an agreement between the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Polish Public Television (TVP). Broadcasting is carried out mainly in Belarusian, but some programs and interviews are aired in Russian.

Belsat actively covered the protests in Belarus. Many journalists of the TV channel have been repeatedly tried and arrested. In November 2020, the journalists of the TV channel Katerina Andreeva and Daria Chultsova were arrested for broadcasting a peaceful rally in memory of Roman Bondarenko, who died during the arrest. In February 2021, they were sentenced to two years in prison. According to investigators, the journalists were leading “group actions that grossly violate public order”, which entailed disrupting the work of public transport.

In July 2021, the information resources of the Belsat TV channel – its website and pages in social networks – were declared extremist. And in September, the Investigative Committee of Belarus announced that a criminal case of tax evasion was being investigated against the officials of the TV channel.