Belarus labels Polish-funded TV channel extremist

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A court in Belarus on Tuesday declared a Polish-funded television channel that extensively covered last year's anti-government protests in the country extremist, the latest move in a sweeping crackdown on independent media and civil society activists.

The court in the city of Gomel labeled the Belsat channel extremist, and the authorities said they blocked its website and all social media accounts in Belarus. The ruling was based on an inquiry by Belarus' Interior Ministry, according to ministry spokeswoman Olga Chemodanova.

It wasn't immediately clear which of Belsat's content was deemed extremist, but Chemodanova noted that sharing or posting content of an outlet that has been labeled extremist carries a fine or arrest of up to 15 days.

Belarusian authorities have ramped up action against nongovernmental organizations and independent media, with more than 200 raids of offices and apartments of activists and journalists so far this month, according to the Viasna human rights center.

President Alexander Lukashenko has vowed to continue what he called a “mopping-up operation” against civil society activists whom the authoritarian leader denounced as “bandits and foreign agents.”

More than 50 NGOs in total are facing closure. They include the Belarusian Association of Journalists, the biggest and the most respected media organization in the country, and the Belarusian PEN Center, an association of writers led by Svetlana Alexievich, the winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in literature.

Belarusian authorities have also shut down the biggest independent media outlets in the country, including the widely popular Tut.by news site and the renowned Nasha Niva newspaper. A total of 27 journalists in Belarus are currently behind bars, either awaiting trial or...