Updated at 17:53,27-03-2024

State telecommunications monopoly restores access to popular opposition news website

Naviny.by

Belarus’ state telecommunications monopoly Beltelecom restored access to charter97.org, one the most popular Belarusian opposition news websites, in the afternoon of August 15.

The website was unavailable earlier in the day to the subscribers of byfly, Atlant Telecom, Cosmos TV, Velcom, MTS, Life, Belinfonet and other Internet providers.

Natallya Radzina, the Warsaw-based editor-in-chief of charter97.org, said that access to the site had been blocked by Beltelecom at the request of the Russian authorities over its pro-Kyiv coverage of the ongoing Ukraine crisis.

"The Kremlin blocks today independent sources of information that provide unbiased coverage of the Russian-Ukrainian war," she said.

Earlier this summer, Rostelecom, Russia's largest telecommunications operator, blacklisted several articles on charter97.org, briefly making all of its contents off limits to both Belarusian and Russian subscribers. However, access to the site in Belarus was restored within several hours.