{"id":160096,"date":"2025-10-15T14:01:55","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T11:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/160096\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","slug":"information-minister-defends-censorship-calls-banned-books-subversive","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/160096\/","title":{"rendered":"Information minister defends censorship, calls banned books \u201csubversive\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>October 15, Pozirk.<\/strong> Belarusian Information Minister Marat Marka\u016d has defended state censorship, claiming that the opposition is engaging in \u201csubversive activities\u201d through literature and books. He made the statement during a meeting with activists of the pro-government Bie\u0142aja Ru\u015b association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the state-run news agency <em>Minsk-Novosti<\/em>, Belarusian censors have labeled 173 publications as promoting \u201cpornography, LGBTQ content, violence and cruelty,\u201d declaring them \u201charmful to the interests of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The list of banned printed materials was first published a year ago, following legal amendments adopted two years earlier. The Belarusian PEN described the measure as \u201ca new form of censorship,\u201d but Marka\u016d defended it, citing the need to combat \u201cpropaganda of violence, hatred or perversion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, a number of the banned works clearly do not fall into those categories, and their authors appear to have been targeted for political reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In late September, the information ministry\u2019s censorship commission added 32 new titles to the list, including <em>Elephant<\/em> and <em>Red Cross<\/em> by the prominent exiled Belarusian writer Sa\u0161a Filipienka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since the political unrest of 2020, Filipienka has become a leading voice of the Belarusian protest movement in Europe, where he now resides. He has spoken out on behalf of Belarusian political prisoners in Russian, German, English, Swedish, Dutch, Polish and French media, and he publicly supports Ukraine in its defense against the Russian invasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/ru\/news\/157893\/\">Sa\u0161a Filipienka, Irvin Welsh, Hunter S. Thompson among books banned by censors in Belarus<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>October 15, Pozirk. Belarusian Information Minister Marat Marka\u016d has defended state censorship, claiming that the opposition is engaging in \u201csubversive activities\u201d through literature and books. He made the statement during a meeting with activists of the pro-government Bie\u0142aja Ru\u015b association. According to the state-run news agency Minsk-Novosti, Belarusian censors have labeled 173 publications as promoting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":128094,"template":"","rubric":[14,13],"class_list":["post-160096","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","rubric-politics","rubric-society"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Information minister defends censorship, calls banned books \u201csubversive\u201d | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"October 15, Pozirk. Belarusian Information Minister Marat Marka\u016d has defended state censorship, claiming that the opposition is engaging in \u201csubversive\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/160096\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Information minister defends censorship, calls banned books \u201csubversive\u201d | Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"October 15, Pozirk. Belarusian Information Minister Marat Marka\u016d has defended state censorship, claiming that the opposition is engaging in \u201csubversive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/160096\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-09T20:10:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/markov-27-02-mininform.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1128\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"752\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Pozirk_online\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/160096\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/160096\/\"},\"headline\":\"Information minister defends censorship, calls banned books \u201csubversive\u201d\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-15T11:01:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-09T20:10:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/160096\/\"},\"wordCount\":246,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/160096\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/markov-27-02-mininform.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/160096\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/160096\/\",\"name\":\"Information minister defends censorship, calls banned books \u201csubversive\u201d | Pozirk\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/160096\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/160096\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/markov-27-02-mininform.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-15T11:01:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-09T20:10:49+00:00\",\"description\":\"October 15, Pozirk. 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Belarusian Information Minister Marat Marka\u016d has defended state censorship, claiming that the opposition is engaging in \u201csubversive","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/160096\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Information minister defends censorship, calls banned books \u201csubversive\u201d | Pozirk","og_description":"October 15, Pozirk. 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