Friday 29 October 2021
“Absolutely ridiculous”
Belarus blocks Deutsche Welle website
Lukashenko uses violence against independent media in Belarus. More and more journalists have to leave the country. Now the “last dictator in Europe” is also tackling Deutsche Welle. Intendant Limbourg speaks of an “act of desperation”.
The authorities in Belarus have blocked the Deutsche Welle (DW) website. The online offers in all 32 broadcast languages are no longer available, said the broadcaster in Bonn. The Ministry of Information in Minsk justified the move, according to the state agency Belta, with the fact that Deutsche Welle was linking to material that had been classified as extremist according to court orders.
Artistic director Peter Limbourg spoke of “an act of desperation” for the tour in Belarus. “The accusation against DW is absolutely ridiculous,” he said, according to a statement. A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said in Berlin that the German ambassador in Minsk had asked the foreign ministry there for an explanation of the incident and that access to the Deutsche Welle website be re-enabled immediately.
In addition to DW, other news portals in Belarus are affected by the lock. Since the mass protests in the summer and autumn of last year, ruler Alexander Lukashenko has been taking massive action against independent media, human rights organizations and those who think differently. The EU and the USA have already imposed sanctions on the ex-Soviet republic. Lukashenko, who has been criticized as the “last dictator in Europe”, is supported by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
US embassy has to close offices
“We protest against the blocking of our offers because the people there have a right to objective information about the situation in their country,” said Limbourg. “The heavy use of independent media offers clearly shows that the people in Belarus no longer trust the state-controlled media.”
The US embassy in Belarus has to close its press office and other offices such as the USAID development aid office under pressure from the authorities. In addition, the embassy was forced to lay off more than 20 Belarusian employees. “These measures reflect the deep uncertainty of the Belarusian authorities,” it said.