By Erin L. Cox, Publisher | @erinlcox
Today in Belarus, more than 258 books are banned for political or ideological reasons, over 208 authors face publication prohibitions, 5 independent publishers have been liquidated in the past five years, and at least 35 writers are currently deprived of freedom.On November 27, PEN Belarus and the Belarusian Association of Journalists hosted an event Banned People: How Writers and Journalists Work in Belarus, Where Independent Work Is Branded “Extremism,” where authors and journalists shared powerful testimonies about life and publishing under the authoritarian regime and introduced a new website dedicated to banned books in Belarus in order to give a platform to the writers who are being silenced.
PEN Belarus classified the banned books into 3 lists:
- Extremism Materials: Works of fiction, historical, and academic literature that have been designated as “extremist materials” since 2020.
- Harmful to National Interest: List of printed publications that, according to the authorities, “may harm the national interests of the Republic of Belarus.”
- Informal ban list: A system of non-public bans operating entirely outside any legal framework. It does not rely on official lists or court decisions. Instead, it functions through verbal orders, anonymous “commissions,” and an atmosphere of all-pervasive fear. It is a “phantom list” that cannot be challenged, because formally it does not exist. Books simply disappear.
Accusations of extremism or links to terrorist groups are used to silence writers looking to speak the truth, such as journalist Yauhen Merkis, who was sentenced to four years in prison for extremism based on his coverage of the 2020 protests around the presidential election as a freelance journalist.
These bans of journalists are punitive and without legal merit. The government continues to place them on blacklists based on vague or arbitrary criteria. Some journalists and publishers, including the International Publishers Association’s 2025 Prix Voltaire winners Nadia Kandrusevich and Dmitri Strotsev, have been forced to flee Belarus to avoid imprisonment.
The IPA will soon announce its call for nominations for the 2026 IPA Prix Voltaire and the Freedom of Expression Defenders Award.