Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has condemned this week’s ban on the Euronews website by her country’s authoritarian government as “shameful.”
“[President Alexander Lukashenko’s] regime has branded Euronews, a leading European news platform, ‘extremist’ for bringing the truth to millions of Belarusians,” Tsikhanouskaya wrote on X late on Thursday.
“This attacks media freedom and turns viewers into targets of repression.”
On Tuesday, a court in the former Soviet republic’s Mogilev region added the Euronews website to a list of “extremist materials.”
The site is now blocked in Belarus – closely allied to Russia – with the storing or distribution of its content now punishable by fines and imprisonment.
Broadcasting of Euronews’ television programming was already banned in Belarus in 2021.
Minsk’s additional step against the outlet is another response to its critical reporting, according to Tsikhanouskaya.
The former teacher entered politics during the 2020 Belarusian presidential election after the arrest of her husband, a prominent pro-democracy blogger. She continues her opposition to Lukashenko – who has ruled the republic since 1994 – from exile.