BELARUSIAN INTERNET PORTAL TUT.BY MIGHT LOSE THE STATUS OF MEDIA

The Ministry of Information of Belarus applied to the court, demanding the termination of publications of the TUT.BY online media, as well as the deprivation of its status as a mass media.

The reason for such radical measures was the actions of the portal itself, which, ignoring warnings, continued to cover various topics.    

In particular, the Ministry of Information did not think high of the publications about so-called "secret protocols" in the presidential elections in August this year, the bonuses for the state control officers after they have successfully completed a number of the high-profile cases, and even the news about the desire of customs officers to confirm the absence of calls for overthrow in the books about Harry Potter.

Despite this, according to the representatives of the Internet portal, if the claim is satisfied, TUT.BY will not stop its activities, however, it will be deprived of a number of opportunities which the status of media provides for. In particular, it will become more difficult for the portal's journalists to cover various kinds of events, in particular, from the mass events or from the hot spots.

We should recall that the TYT.BY Internet portal has been operating for 20 years already, but it received the status of a media only at the beginning of 2019.

The first hearing to consider the claim of the Ministry of Information of Belarus will be held on October 8.