{"id":522840,"date":"2026-03-04T17:33:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T14:33:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=522840"},"modified":"2026-03-04T19:17:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T16:17:06","slug":"belarusian-pen-recognized-as-an-extremist-formation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/belarusian-pen-recognized-as-an-extremist-formation","title":{"rendered":"Belarusian PEN Recognized as an \u201cExtremist Formation\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>By a decision of the KGB dated February 27, 2026, Belarusian PEN has been recognized as an \u201cextremist formation.\u201d Today the relevant entry was added to the list maintained by the Interior Ministry.<\/p>\n<p>The decision mentions the names of <b>Tatstsiana Niadbai<\/b> and <b>Alena Talkachova<\/b> (referring to lawyer and human rights defender <b>Alena Tankachova<\/b>, who in fact has not worked at Belarusian PEN for a long time. \u2014 Reform.news). The list also includes the organization\u2019s social media accounts on Facebook, X, Instagram, Telegram, and YouTube, as well as its website.<\/p>\n<p>Belarusian PEN was founded in 1989 and is one of the oldest Belarusian human rights organizations advocating for freedom of expression, combating manifestations of hatred, and drawing global attention to human rights violations in Belarus, including cultural rights.<\/p>\n<p>Among the founders of the association are <b>Vasil Bykau<\/b>, <b>Sviatlana Aleksievich<\/b>, <b>Ryhor Baradulin<\/b>, <b>Karlos Sharman<\/b>, <b>Adam Maldzis<\/b>, and <b>Vasil Siomukha<\/b>, as well as other prominent figures of Belarusian literature. Through these founders, the organization\u2019s activities were built on value-based principles \u2014 freedom of speech and the protection of rights.<\/p>\n<p>Belarusian PEN unites People of the Word, advocates for the rights of imprisoned People of the Word, and maintains a list of literature recognized as extremist materials. People of the Word are Belarusian writers, translators and literary scholars, publicists, intellectuals, and those who create and disseminate culture and defend the word and its masters.<\/p>\n<p>Both Belarusian Nobel laureates \u2014 <b>Sviatlana Aleksievich<\/b> and human rights defender <b>Ales Bialiatski<\/b> \u2014 are members of Belarusian PEN.<\/p>\n<p>Belarusian authorities use extremism charges to fight their opponents and dissent in general.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-522808\" src=\"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/pen.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"293\" srcset=\"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/pen.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/pen-300x69.jpg 300w, https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/pen-1200x275.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/pen-768x176.jpg 768w, https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/pen-870x199.jpg 870w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By a decision of the KGB dated February 27, 2026, Belarusian PEN has been recognized as an \u201cextremist formation.\u201d Today the relevant entry was added to the list maintained by the Interior Ministry. The decision mentions the names of Tatstsiana Niadbai and Alena Talkachova (referring to lawyer and human rights defender Alena Tankachova, who in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":522839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/69a85b07ea280.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Belarusian PEN Recognized as an \u201cExtremist Formation\u201d"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142375,142338],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-522840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-news"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","permalink_manager":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}