MOSCOW, Russia: Belarusian authorities on Monday declared German broadcaster Deutsche Welle an “extremist” organization and banned all activities in the country.
This statement means that anyone who cooperates with DW to produce content for the service in Belarus could face up to seven years in prison. Anyone who reads or republishes Deutsche Welle articles may commit an administrative or criminal offense.
General director of Deutsche Welle, Peter Limburg criticized the move, saying the allegations were baseless and did not reflect the true nature of Belarusian service’s work.
Belarusian authorities have already designated 199 organizations as “extremist” and use the label to crack down on domestic dissent.
The list includes the services of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Belarus and the independent Belarusian television channel Belsat, which broadcasts in Belarusian from the Warsaw, Poland capital.
According to Andrei Bastunets, president of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, the situation with freedom of expression in the country is the worst in Europe. He further said that Belarus was akin to a European “North Korea.”
The country was rocked by mass protests in 2020 after the country’s authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko declared he had won a sixth term. The vote was rejected by the opposition and the West as fraudulent.
The human rights organizations said authorities arrested over 35,000 people, some of whom were brutally beaten. Many opposition leaders have been arrested and sentenced to long prison terms, while others have fled abroad.
Deutsche Welle’s Belarusian service is based in Bonn, Germany, and the organization is funded by the German government.
According to the Belarusian Association of Journalists, as many as 36 journalists are currently behind bars in the country.
