“It is absurd to recognize as extremist a brand that promotes the Belarusian language and culture” – director of “Nasha Niva”

For us, the recognition of Nasha Niva’s materials as “extremist” did not come as a surprise. This is a natural step on the part of the security officials, who are doing everything to destroy the remnants of freedom of speech in the country. Almost all independent media have already received this status; we are rather completing the chain of recognizing resources as “extremist”. Moreover, we see that the security forces have gone to the second round and now recognize the media as “extremist formations”. It is symbolic that with regard to the materials of Nasha Niva, the decision was made on the day of the 115th anniversary of the publication. It is absurd that a brand that for decades has been promoting the Belarusian language, national culture and history, independence, a brand that was created by national leaders, where the editor was Yanka Kupala, was awarded this status.

What will we do? The same as other Belarusian media, the materials of which are recognized as “extremist”: continue their work. The employees of the portal are now under attack, but they all have already left the country. As for the readers and subscribers, we see that people are tired of the daily recognition of information resources or channels as “extremist” and no longer react to this. The only thing we will remind our subscribers about is that you should not repost our materials in order to avoid the risk of getting a day of arrest.

“The enemy should be perceived not as an enemy, but as a teacher,” our editor Andrei Skurko wrote from the pre-trial detention center. “It is possible to expel the editorial office from the territory of Belarus, but so far no one has managed to kill the dream of their own newspaper, which will look at the world from the Belarusian point of view,” wrote the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Yegor Martinovich. Both Andrei and Yegor have already spent more than four months in prison. It is a tragedy that today they have to pay with their freedom for the desire to be a journalist in their country.