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By Holger Mann (SPD), is a memeber of the German parliament und a member of the Bundestag Committee on Cultural and Media Affairs
Published on
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent in any way the editorial position of Euronews.
Last week, Belarus classified the Euronews website – like many before it – as an “extremist medium”. What may sound like a dry administrative act is in fact an open declaration of war on the free press and an admission of its own weakness.
Euronews is neither a radical campaigning outlet nor a propaganda machine. It is an established outlet that works according to journalistic principles and reaches millions of people across Europe.
That is precisely what makes it dangerous for Belarusian strongman Aliaksandr Lukashenka. Not because Euronews lies, but because it provides objective information in 12 different languages.
Censorship is an admission
Whoever resorts to censorship, blocks websites and criminalises their users as well as journalists, thereby inadvertently admits that they want to shield their own population from free reporting and, if in doubt, from the truth about themselves.
A regime that was sure of itself would not be afraid of coverage. It would be able to bear it. Instead, Minsk prefers to block the source.
This is not some Belarusian peculiarity, it is the logic of every autocracy: information is power and whoever controls information and thus the power to shape the narrative in their own country wields absolute power.
That is exactly why autocrats like Lukashenka resort to technical blocks as soon as free reporting threatens their storyline.
Timing is no coincidence
You do not need to be a Kremlin expert to see that this decision has not been taken in a vacuum.
Belarus has long ceased to be a neutral observer of the war against Ukraine and has become a willing enforcer for Moscow. From providing territory for Russian troops to adopting Russian narratives in its own politics, it is reasonable to assume that the blocking of Euronews is not only about Belarus itself, but about preventing any free access to information about a war that has long since turned into a costly debacle for the Kremlin.
Where their own population learns how high the real price of this war is – in human lives, in economic substance, in international isolation – things become uncomfortable for autocrats.
So they prefer to switch off the source rather than correct their own policies.
Minsk is willingly taking on the role of information gatekeeper for Moscow, because both regimes pursue the same goal: to ensure that their populations learn as little as possible about what is actually happening.
A country that has turned political imprisonment into a system
This decision fits seamlessly into the pattern that has shaped Belarus for years. Belarus has, according to the latest UN report, the highest number of political prisoners per capita.
Anyone who voices public criticism, who protests, or who practises or supports independent journalism risks imprisonment – often under inhumane conditions, without due process.
The blocking of Euronews is therefore not a side note, but another building block in the architecture of a state based on injustice that has systematically dismantled freedom of expression.
Meanwhile, pressure inside Belarus on its own population is growing. On 1 July, a further 28 political prisoners whose prison sentences in penal colonies were coming to an end were released, but repression is spreading across broader society.
Families, religious communities and people who meet privately in public places are increasingly being targeted by the Belarusian authorities.
After Lukashenka criminalised independent journalism in Belarus in order to restrict access to information among the population, control is now being extended deep into people’s private lives.
If a regime with such a record now also declares European news media to be “extremists,” that says more about the nature of this regime than about Euronews.
It is a desperate attempt to maintain an information bubble that has long since become porous, not least because people in Belarus, despite all the risks, continue to find ways to keep themselves informed.
What this means for Europe
For us in Germany and Europe, this news is more than a marginal note. It illustrates what is really at stake in systemic competition with autocracies: not just territory and weapons, but the question of whether people have access to independent information or not. Free media are not some luxury item of democratic societies, but their basic precondition.
It is therefore right that Germany and the EU stand firmly behind newsrooms like Euronews and offer practical support to those affected – whether journalists or people who simply want to stay informed – for example by providing technical means to access blocked content regardless. Equally important is to address such developments clearly in diplomatic and political exchanges with Belarus.
Those who ban news do not thereby gain control over the truth, they merely show how much they fear it. That fear is a sign of weakness, not of strength.
Read the full article here
