EAC launches wide-sweeping seizure of independent media domain names
In recent days, several editorial offices of online publications recognized by Belarusian courts as “extremist content” have received notices that their domain names with the .by extension are no longer valid.
New domain names
The Executive and Analytical Center under the President of the Republic of Belarus is reported to be sending out notices pursuant to its own April 4 order to cancel Belarusian domain names for sites included in the Republican List of Extremist Materials. This list is updated on the website of the Ministry of Information according to court decisions.
The EAC order was published on April 9, 2024. Some editorial offices have already managed to transfer their publications to the new domain names.
The Reform.by editorial board was the first to report about the cancellation of its domain name. This media outlet was recently included in the «extremist list» – on March 21, 2024, following the decision of the Leninski District Court of Brest. The editors were prepared for such developments and set up a new website with a different domain name, reform.news.
The same was done by the editorial staff of Mediazona Belarus. The Internet resource mediazona.by, recognized as «extremist» by the decision of the Leninski District Court of Hrodna on May 20, 2022, continues to work at the address mediazonaby.com. The Media-Polesye regional media website (media-polesye.by), included in the «extremist list» on April 5, 2022 by the decision of the Luninets District Court of Brest Region, has now been re-registered as media-polesye.com.
Some online publications have not informed their readers of the switch to another domain name, which has resulted in some sites being simply inaccessible. For instance, the online news outlets stolin.by («Stolin»), baranovichi.by («Baranovichi »), and luniniets.by («Luninets») were designated as «extremist» on February 16 of this year by the decision of the Leninski District Court of Brest.
Who else is on the list?
As of today, in addition to the media outlets previously mentioned, the Republican List of Extremist Materials includes the following information sites with a .by extension:
- tut.by (online news outlet designated as an extremist information product on August 13, 2021);
- baj.by (website of the Belarusian Association of Journalists designated as extremist information product on June 8, 2023);
- brestnote.by (Brest regional publication BrestNote, designated as an extremist information product on April 10, 2024);
- intex-press.by (website of a Baranavichy online news outlet designated as an extremist information product on April 29, 2023);
- ex-press.by (a Barysau online news outlet designated as an extremist information product on February 9, 2023);
- borisovnews.by (the website of the Borisovskie Novosti publication designated as an extremist information product on November 12, 2021);
- belaruspartisan.by (the website of the Belorusskiy Partizan online news outlet designated as an extremist information product on November 12, 2021);
- b‑g.by (the website of the Brestskaya Gazeta publication designated as an extremist information product on November 26, 2021);
- 1reg.by (Pershy Rehijon news outlet designated as an extremist information product on December 27, 2021);
- 6tv.by (Mahilou news outlet designated as an extremist information product on February 2, 2022);
- rh.by (the website of the Rehijanalnaja Hazeta publication designated as an extremist information product on January 20, 2022);
- lepel.by (Novosti Lepelia news outlet designated as an extremist information product on January 25, 2022);
- naviny97.by (Naviny 97 news outlet designated as an extremist information product on February 18, 2022);
- honest-people.by (the website of the Honest People public initiative designated as an extremist information product on February 22, 2022);
- bornews.by (Borisov-Info news outlet designated as an extremist information product on July 18, 2022);
- zasvojgorod.by (Vektor Nashego Goroda news outlet designated as an extremist information product on September 5, 2022);
- babruisk.by (Bobruiskiy Kurier news outlet designated as an extremist information product on September 26, 2022);
- carkva-gazeta.by (carkva.by news outlet designated as an extremist information product on December 14, 2022);
- bk-brest.by (the website of the Brestskiy Kurier publication designated as an extremist information product on July 7, 2023);
- zbsunion.by (the website of the Belarusian Students Association designated as an extremist information product on August 4, 2023);
- inform-progulka.by (the website of the Inform-Progulka regional publication designated as an extremist information product on October 20, 2023);
- ganc-chas.by (the website of the Hantsavitski Chas regional publication designated as an extremist information product on November 2, 2022);
- pyx.by (the website of the For Freedom Movement designated as an extremist information product on December 7, 2023);
- 1pinsk.by (Pershy Pinski news outlet designated as an extremist information product on December 21, 2023).