The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus recognized the publication Zerkalo as an “extremist group”. The decision was made on June 9, and information appeared in the corresponding list on June 12. The list includes the Zerkala website, its social networks, as well as the logo “in the form of a formalized image of a white dove holding a branch on a red background.”
“A group of citizens united under the name “Zerkalo / Zerkalo.io” carries out extremist activities through a number of Internet resources, as well as visual material (image, logo, digital watermark, etc.) or Zerkalo.io text with any either with inscriptions or without the use of inscriptions, regardless of the medium of information (flags, banners, pennants, emblems, chevrons, stripes, stickers, stickers, badges, clothing items, household items, etc.),” the Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a statement.
The extremist status was assigned to the publication for “public calls for sanctions, discrediting and insulting officials, organizing activities to prepare for encroachments on the sovereignty and public security of the Republic of Belarus,” says the Kniga GU BAZA channel close to the security forces.
Zerkalo.io (“Mirror”) is a Belarusian Internet portal, successor to TUT.BY. It was created on July 8, 2021 after TUT.BY was blocked in Belarus. Part of the former team of the portal, located abroad, stressed that it will end its existence as soon as the blocked TUT.BY portal can legally operate in the country. On the territory of Belarus, the site is blocked.
On August 13, 2021, the court of the Central District of Minsk considered the claim from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus and recognized the information products of the TUT.BY portal and its social networks, as well as Zerkalo.io, as extremist materials.