Belarusian authorities declared Deutsche Welle’s Telegram channel and the company’s logo as “extremist” over its reporting on the invasion of Ukraine. Deutsche Welle’s website had already been declared “extremist” in October 2021. The decision followed a decision in Russia to block the news websites and ban Deutsche Welle within its own territory. DW Director General Peter Limbourg said that the number of Belarusian readers has increased significantly since the war started. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus released a statement on March 9: “The Minsk Central District Court, based on material from the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, has classified the information products of the Telegram channel and the DW Belarus chat as extremist material.”