The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus recognized the news agency BelaPAN and its website as an extremist formation This was reported by RIA Novosti with reference to the press service of the department.
The corresponding decision was made on November 1. Representatives of the Belarusian department noted that “a group of citizens from among the employees of the news agency BelaPAN is carrying out extremist activities.”
Prior to this, the BYPOL and Peramoga initiatives, as well as the Internet resources of the Polish TV channel, were recognized as extremist groups in the republic “Belsat”.
On August 18 it became known that the Belarusian security forces came with searches to several BelaPAN journalists. Law enforcement officers detained the editor-in-chief Irina Levshina, accountant Yekaterina Boeva and former director of the agency Dmitry Novozhilov.
Media workers were suspected of committing crimes under the first part of Article 342 (“Organization and active participation in actions that grossly violate public order” ) Of the Criminal Code (CC) of Belarus. In addition, the investigation carried out a tax audit of the activities of BelaPAN and revealed a violation of tax legislation.