Pozirk designated as extremist group in Belarus

December 19, Pozirk. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has designated the Pozirk news agency as an extremist group.

Specifically, it named journalist Taćciana Karaviankova, human rights activist Raman Kiślak, and political analysts Alaksandar Kłaskoŭski, Piotra Rudkoŭski and Alexander Friedman as persons associated with the group.

One year ago, a district court in Minsk designated Pozirk‘s website, pozirk.online,  as extremist content. A year later, the pozirk_online accounts on X and Instagram were added to the national list of extremist content.

Pozirk was launched by members of Belarus’ oldest independent news agency, BelaPAN and its news website Naviny.by. In November 2021, Minsk outlawed BelaPAN as an extremist group.

Police arrested Iryna Leŭšyna, BelaPAN CEO and editor in chief, and ex-CEO Dźmitryj Navažyłaŭ in August 2021.

The Minsk Regional Court sentenced the two, as well as former deputy CEO Andrej Alaksandraŭ and his wife Iryna Złobina, to prison in October 2022. Leŭšyna was released on December 7 after serving her four-year prison term.

The website was launched on October 16, 2023. It is inaccessible in Belarus.

Also read: BelaPAN editor released after serving full sentence