By euronews
Published on •Updated
Belarus’ decision to ban the Euronews website by designating it as “extremist” and adding it to its “Republican List of Extremist Materials” marks a new escalation by authorities in Minsk in their crackdown on independent media and free speech.
The Belarus Ministry of Information’s move, reported by Belarus-based media, resulted in the immediate restriction of access to Euronews’ digital platforms in the country’s territory, as shown by Euronews’ real-time traffic-monitoring systems.
As of Saturday, Belarus has still not communicated its decision to Euronews, which was reportedly taken on 4 August – nor has it outlined the reasoning behind it.
The Ministry of Information had already banned Euronews’ television broadcasts in April 2021 following its coverage of nationwide protests against Belarusian leader Aliaksandr Lukashenka.
The Belarus government’s official argument then was that Euronews’ broadcasting license had expired and that the channel was publishing adverts in English rather than translating them into Russian or Belarusian in line with local laws.
Euronews was also not notified of that decision and once again learned of the ban through media outlets in Belarus.
In a statement published after the 2021 ban came into effect, Euronews condemned the decision and said that it would “do its utmost to ensure that its audiences in Belarus can very soon again have access, on television, to its hallmark impartial and quality journalism.”
“In the meantime, these audiences will be able to continue following us on our digital platforms,” it added.
Following in Russia’s footsteps
Euronews had built a significant audience in Belarus and in Russia over the years, its digital traffic data shows.
However, Moscow decided to ban Euronews’ television and digital platforms across Russia in March 2022, shortly after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as Euronews refused to comply with the censorship and propaganda-driven measures imposed by the Kremlin on the media.
The decision to stop broadcasting Euronews was taken by Russia’s audio-visual regulator Roskomnadzor following a request from the Prosecutor General’s Office. It threatened Euronews with “criminal liability” and accused the outlet of publishing “unreliable information on a special military operation being carried out by the Russian Armed Forces, as well as information containing calls for people to participate in mass (public) events.”
After Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops invaded Ukraine, the Kremlin told the media not to call its full-scale invasion a war, while also issuing other directives that contravened Euronews’ fundamental editorial values.
Responding at the time, Euronews rejected “the allegations of ‘fake news’ and of calling citizens to protest”.
“We firmly condemn this intolerable restriction imposed on the millions of people across Russia who relied on Euronews, more than ever, to get impartial fact-based news, in a context of heightened disinformation and propaganda,” Euronews said in a statement.
Russian authorities continued to criminalise the dissemination of what it called information “discrediting” the Russian army and threatened journalists with up to 15 years in prison.
More recently, Euronews revealed that multiple fake news videos were being posted on Russian social media copying the publication’s journalistic and visual style in an attempt to spread false political information.
These come as part of a wider, sophisticated fake news campaign targeting Western media and European societies.
Belarus, Russia and Iran’s media crackdown
Minsk’s decision mirrors a series of similar measures taken by Moscow in clamping down on internet platforms it does not fully control.
On the same day that Belarus took the decision to ban Euronews’ digital platforms, the Kremlin blocked dozens of VPN services used by Russians to bypass internet restrictions in a move that experts described as one of the largest crackdowns on VPN services in recent years.
The latest VPN blockade comes as Russia has been imposing constant restrictions on media outlets, social media and foreign technology companies ever since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
In July 2025, Russia imposed a new legislation criminalising “searching for extremist content online”, marking the first time Moscow hit internet users for consuming and distributing content deemed as banned in further crackdown on dissent and independent journalism.
Belarus’ decision to classify Euronews’ journalism as “extremist” appears to match this Russian legislation.
Then in August 2025, Russian authorities announced they were “partially” restricting calls through Telegram and WhatsApp messaging applications, in a further effort to tighten control over the internet and since the beginning of 2026 the Kremlin moved to fully block Telegram and WhatsApp everywhere across the country, triggering the largest wave of criticism from Kremlin supporters against the authorities in four years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Iranian regime followed Russia and Belarus’ method to eliminate any outside information reaching their societies by bluntly blocking all internet access across Iran when it cracked down on the massive anti-regime protests in January 2026 and continued maintaining the internet ban throughout the Iran war.
Over the last months, the Tehran regime also imposed further measures of internet control and severe penalties on VPN usage, while designating selected medias as enemies of the state.
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