MINSK, Belarus — Authorities in Belarus blocked more than 50 news media websites that were covering weeks of protests demanding that authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko resign but protesters still turned out again Saturday, some forming a chain of solidarity in the capital.
The Belarusian Association of Journalists reported the shutdowns Saturday, which included sites for the U.S.-funded Radio Liberty and Belsat, a Polish-funded satellite TV channel focusing on neighboring Belarus. The state publishing house has also stopped printing two top independent newspapers, the Narodnaya Volya and Komsomolskaya Pravda, citing an equipment malfunction.
Protests unprecedented in Belarus for their size and duration broke out after the Aug. 9 presidential election, in which election officials say Lukashenko won a sixth term in a landslide. Protesters allege the officials results are fraudulent and are calling for Lukashenko to resign after 26 years in power.
Police responded harshly to the protests at first, arresting 7,000 people and beating many of them. But the police crackdown only widened the scope of the protests, and now anti-government strikes have been called at some of the country’s main factories, former bases of support for Lukashenko. Some police posted videos of themselves burning their uniforms and quitting in disgust at the government’s response.
