{"id":22469,"date":"2026-05-18T07:01:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T07:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/?p=22469"},"modified":"2026-05-19T16:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T16:12:10","slug":"hronika-parushennyau-pravou-chalaveka-u-sfery-kultury-1-15-traunya-2026-goda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/2026\/05\/18\/hronika-parushennyau-pravou-chalaveka-u-sfery-kultury-1-15-traunya-2026-goda.html","title":{"rendered":"Chronicle of human rights violations in the sphere of culture (1-15 May 2026)"},"content":{"rendered":"

To report a violation (including confidentially) or to correct data presented in the report, please contact us at\u00a0dapamoha@penbelarus.org\u00a0or t.me\/viadoma.<\/em><\/p>\n

As of 15 May 2026, at least 122 cultural figures, including at least 24 writers, were either imprisoned or under home confinement. The number of banned books climbed to 340.<\/b><\/p>\n

The website of the Belarusian online library <\/span>Kamunikat.org<\/b> was temporarily taken offline after a large-scale cyberattack.<\/span><\/p>\n

Manuscripts by journalist and non-fiction author <\/span>Kaciaryna Andrejeva<\/b> were confiscated before her release from the penal colony, including the entire archive accumulated over five years of imprisonment.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Ministry of Information added the band <\/span>Naviband<\/b>‘s Threads account to the list of \u201cextremist materials\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Ministry of Information added the Instagram page of the <\/span>Ivan Luckievi\u010d Museum (lutskevichmuseum)<\/b> to the list of \u201cextremist materials\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Facebook page <\/span>\u201cAles Pushkin\u201d<\/b> belonging to the late artist and political prisoner <\/span>Ale\u015b Pu\u0161kin<\/b>, who died in prison, was included in the \u201cList of Extremist Materials\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Four political science and human rights publications were designated as \u201cextremist materials\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

The folk festival <\/span>Sviata Sonca<\/b> (Festival of the Sun) was cancelled.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/b>I. Attack on the online library Kamunikat.org<\/b><\/h5>\n

On the night of 6\u20137 May 2026, the website of the Belarusian online library <\/span>Kamunikat.org<\/b> was targeted by a large-scale cyberattack and was temporarily taken offline. The head of the project, <\/span>Jaros\u0142aw Iwaniuk<\/b>, stated that he believed the security services were behind the attack. He said, \u201cIn my opinion, this indicates that Kamunikat is indeed a very good project, one that is in demand among Belarusians who want to preserve their cultural heritage, read in Belarusian, and preserve the language \u2014 and that is precisely why the regime and its special services dislike it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Belarusian online library Kamunikat.org was founded in Bia\u0142ystok, Poland, in 2001. In 2022, a publishing house of the same name was established. A previous hacking attempt took place in December 2025. The first attack on Kamunikat.org occurred in 2023, when the main domain was blocked in Belarus. On 3 March, Kamunikat.org was designated an \u201cextremist formation\u201d in Belarus. Following the cyberattack on the online library, the cybercrime unit in Bia\u0142ystok, Poland, opened a criminal investigation.<\/span><\/p>\n

II. Confiscation of manuscripts in places of incarceration<\/b><\/h5>\n

Journalist and non-fiction author <\/span>Kaciaryna Andrejeva (Bachva\u0142ava)<\/b>, who was released from a penal colony on 19 March 2026 and deported from Belarus, reported that her notes had been confiscated there, including all correspondence and her entire archive accumulated over five years.<\/span><\/p>\n

III. Designation of human rights, educational, and cultural organisations as \u201cextremist\u201d<\/b><\/h5>\n

<\/b>1.<\/strong> On 6 May, the KGB added three Belarusian projects operating abroad to the list of \u201cextremist formations\u201d: <\/span>Znivien<\/b> \u2014 a clothing brand known since 2020 for its use of Belarusian symbols and themes of emigration and protest; <\/span>The Krama Store<\/b> \u2014 an online shop selling Belarusian goods, including books by Belarusian authors; and <\/span>LVS Language School<\/b> \u2014 an online foreign language school. The projects’ websites, as well as their Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok pages, were declared “extremist”.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>2.<\/strong> On 7 May, it became known that the Ministry of Information had added the Threads account of the band <\/span>Naviband<\/b> to the list of \u201cextremist materials\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>3.<\/strong> On 11 May, it became known that the Ministry of Information had added the Instagram page of the <\/span>Ivan Luckievi\u010d Museum (lutskevichmuseum)<\/b> to the list of \u201cextremist materials\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>4.<\/strong> On 14 May, it became known that the Ministry of Information had added the Facebook page <\/span>\u201cMova Nanova \u2013 Televiersija\u201d<\/b> to the list of \u201cextremist materials\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

IV. Designation of cultural figures\u2019 social media accounts as \u201cextremist\u201d<\/b><\/h5>\n

On 4 May, the H\u0142usk District Court of the Mahilo\u016d Region designated as \u201cextremist\u201d the Facebook page of artist and political prisoner <\/span>Ale\u015b Pu\u0161kin<\/b>, who died in prison on 11 July 2023 because the authorities failed to provide timely medical assistance. On 6 May, the page <\/span>\u201cAles Pushkin\u201d<\/b> was added to the \u201cList of Extremist Materials\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

V. Banned books<\/b><\/h5>\n

<\/b>1.<\/strong> On 6 May, it became known that, following applications by the prosecutor\u2019s office of Minsk\u2019s Zavodski District, the Zavodski District Court had ruled on 25 April that the following books constituted \u201cextremist materials\u201d: <\/span>The Contemporary History of Belarusian Parliamentarism<\/i><\/b> (Minsk: Analytical Hub, 2005); <\/span>Collection of Analytical Reports<\/i><\/b> (Vilnius: Centre for Support of Publishing Initiatives, 2009); <\/span>The Human Rights Situation in Belarus in 2008<\/i><\/b> (Minsk: Analytical Review, 2009); <\/span>Local Elections in the Contemporary Political History of Belarus<\/i><\/b> (Minsk: Analytical Hub, 2003).<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>2.<\/strong> On 11 May, it became known that the prosecutor\u2019s office of Minsk\u2019s Zavodski District had discovered that one website was offering for sale <\/span>Heinz Guderian\u2019s book <\/b>Memoirs of a German General. Germany\u2019s Tank Forces in the Second World War. 1939\u20131945<\/i><\/b>, included in the “List of Extremist Materials”. The prosecutor’s office issued an official order demanding the immediate removal of the book from the catalogue, which was subsequently complied with.<\/span><\/p>\n

VI<\/b>. <\/span>Cancellation of cultural events<\/b><\/h5>\n

On 8 May, it became known that the folk festival <\/span>Sviata Sonca<\/b> (Festival of the Sun), traditionally held at the Dudutki Museum Complex of Traditional Crafts and dedicated to the summer solstice, would not take place in 2026.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To report a violation (including confidentially) or to correct data presented in the report, please contact us at\u00a0dapamoha@penbelarus.org\u00a0or t.me\/viadoma. As of 15 May 2026, at least 122 cultural figures, including at least 24 writers, were either imprisoned or under home confinement. The number of banned books climbed to 340. The website of the Belarusian online<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":22485,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4255],"tags":[4291,4285],"class_list":["post-22469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultural-right","tag-chronicle","tag-hronika"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22469"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22486,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22469\/revisions\/22486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}