Roza Babakhanyan

Affiliated media: Blogger

Incident date: February 24, 2025

Attack type:

• Selective application of repressive laws

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: Belarusian Association of Journalists

Location: Belarus, Homel

Additional information:

The Zheleznodorozhny District Court of the city of Homel has ruled that the content of a number of social media and messaging accounts belonging to blogger Roza Babakhanyan is to be considered extremist informational material. The blogger holds Belarusian and Armenian citizenship and lived in Belarus for the past 27 years. On the basis of the court’s decision, her pages on Instagram, Facebook, Odnoklassniki, the YouTube channel “U Belly”, the Telegram channels “U Belly 1”, and the Telegram group “U Belly 2” have been added to the Republican List of Extremist Materials. On the basis of the court’s ruling, the Belarusian Ministry of Information has included these online resources in the Republican List of Extremist Materials. Under Belarusian law, the distribution and storage of materials recognised as extremist entail administrative liability for both publishers and users.