According to The Moscow Times, Russia has justified blocking access to its Russian-language site on false news.
15.4. 17:53 • Updated April 15th. 18:41
Russia is tightening its grip on the media. Russia’s media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, has blocked access to the websites of two news sites today, Friday.
Russia was first reported to have blocked access to The Moscow Times’ Russian-language website.
The Moscow Times reported this on a messaging service on Twitter. According to the tweet, the newspaper’s Russian-language service published news of riot police who refused to fight in Ukraine.
According to the newspaper, the authorities consider this to be election news.
According to AFP, a court in the Republic of Hakassia, Siberia, ordered the arrest of a journalist at Novyi Fokus today. The reporter had written news about the riot police who refused the war, quoted by The Moscow Times.
The Moscow Times has been covering Russia for three decades, since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The French radio channel was also put on the block list
It was later reported that access to the website of the French radio station RFI, or Radio France Internationale, was blocked.
The name of the channel appeared on the block list of the Roskomnadzor supervisory body. AFP journalists in Moscow did not have access to the channel’s English, French or Russian pages.
According to the supervisory body, the channel has violated a law that prohibits, for example, the dissemination of false information.
However, it is not yet known whether the blocking of the channel is also related to Ukrainian news coverage.
The channel also told Twitter itself in French that access to its website in Russia has been blocked.
RFI broadcasts internationally in several languages.
Russia is blocking the free flow of information
The law in force in Russia has prevented the media, for example, from calling the war in Ukraine a war. The Russian leadership uses the term military operation as a special operation.
The penalty for disseminating false information can be a maximum of 15 years in prison.
The Russian state has hindered the free flow of information in many ways even before the war in Ukraine. After the attack, freedom of speech has been further curtailed.
The living space of social media has also deteriorated. Russia has blocked the use of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
You will be able to discuss this topic until Saturday, April 16 at 11 p.m.
15.4. 6:40 p.m .: News updated: According to AFP news agency, a court in the Republic of Hakassia, Siberia, ordered the arrest of a journalist at Novyi Fokus on Friday. The reporter had written news about the riot police who refused the war, quoted by The Moscow Times.