Belarusian journalist Kyril Pazniak has been detained since early September 2025 on extremism charges.
On September 13, independent news website Pozirk reported that Pazniak had been detained on suspicion of involvement with a banned "extremist" online outlet.
In early September, Belarusian authorities designated Platform 375 as extremist and arrested Pazniak, who hosted discussions between government and opposition supporters on the YouTube channel until 2022.
Pazniak was likely detained on September 2 or 3, charged with extremism, and placed in a pretrial detention center, said a representative of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ, an exiled advocacy and trade group, on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisals.
In 2021, Belarus adopted a package of extremism legislation to combat opposition and to crack down on the media after unprecedented protests calling for the resignation of President Aleksandr Lukashenko following his disputed 2020 election. The 2021 law to combat extremism has been used to ban more than 40 media outlets, according to BAJ.
In September 2025, CPJ emailed the Belarusian Investigative Committee, the law enforcement agency in charge of pretrial proceedings, for comment on the charges against Pazniak but did not receive a reply.