The Belarusian Leninski territory Court in Grodno by decision of 20 August 2026 considered the site, YouTube channel, profiles and logos of the Sunday Guest as extremist materials. The entry is in the registry of the Ministry of Information. For Poland this is simply a clear signal: Minsk hits Catholic media and memory of repression against Poles.
Regime puts the guest on the blacklist
The decision of the court in Grodno was entered in official registry of the Belarusian Ministry of Information. The list includes website www.gosc.pl, a weekly channel on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook profiles, as well as logotypes of editorials described by the authorities. The paper gives the date of 20 August 2026 and indicates that the decision is immediately enforceable.
This is how Alexander Lukashenko works. It does not contradict the text, does not clarify the facts, does not let debate. It puts the description of extremism on the medium, which it writes about political prisoners, the Church and Poles in Belarus. It is simply a brutal but logical method from the point of view of the regime: cut people off from information, intimidate readers and show that even the Polish Catholic weekly can be treated as an enemy of the state.
Locobut and Polish trace
According to WP News and Onetu, citing the Belarusian EuroRadio station, the Sunday Guest has late published materials uncomfortable for Minsk: talks with erstwhile political prisoners, texts about Andrzej Poczombut, analysis of the regulation of Lukashenko and information about the expulsion of Polish Catholic priests from Belarus. This set of themes tells everything about the regime's delicate points.
Andrzej Poczobut remains a peculiarly uncomfortable symbol for Minsk. A writer and activist of the Polish number paid for his faithfulness to the fact with prison, and after his release he inactive reminds that Polishness in the East is not a decoration for diplomatic messages. The National diary wrote about his declaration that in Grodno is his home and that he wants to return to Belarus. For the government it is simply a challenge greater than many authoritative protests.
Anti-extremism as a tool for censorship
Belarusian rules on extremism have been utilized as political weapons for years. This category includes media, social channels, number portals and citizens' initiatives. According to the Polish media, previously on a akin list included the Polish Press Agency, the Russian section of the BBC and Voice of America. This shows the magnitude of the paranoia of power that fears information more than the real opponent.
Nor can this substance be separated from the impacts on the Catholic Church and Polish historical memory. Minsk consistently pushes out everything that reminds of independent social life, Polish presence and anti-communist tradition. The same order houses propaganda that hits the memory of the Home Army and tries to equalize Poles with Nazis. Media censura is only 1 of the fronts of the same war with truth.
Rate for Poland
For Poland, the case of the Sunday Guest is not an episode from abroad. This is an attack on the Polish public, the Polish Catholic community and the right to talk about the destiny of our compatriots behind the east border. If the government can call extremism unpunished texts about political prisoners and priests, it means that it wants to impose its own language besides outside Belarus.
Warsaw should respond calmly, but hard. The defence of Poles in Belarus, the defence of the Church and the defence of freedom of speech are not an addition to abroad policy. They're her core. A country that turns its eyes off its own community beyond borders is weakening its authority.
Truth alternatively of Fear
Lukashenka may enter more editorials in the registers, but it will not change the fact that a strategy based on fear is afraid of a simple article. In this sense, the decision of the Grodno court is an act of weakness, not strength. The government confirms that Polish media, the Church and the memory of repression are inactive important.
The Polish answer should not trust on gestures for cameras. There is simply a request for consistent support for independent information, a claim for Poles in Belarus and a clear message: the fact about Minsk, political prisoners and persecution of the Church will not be closed by a single court decision.
Source: Ministry of Information of the Republic of Belarus, WP News, Onet, EuroRadio, Wb24.org
Source: WP News
