Paris, March 6 (Lujia) Russian President Vladimir Poutine approved a law on march 4 that would impose imprisonment for those who publish "disinformation" about Russian-Ukrainian military operations, up to a maximum of 15 years in prison. Subsequently, a number of Media in Europe and the United States announced the suspension of news work in Russia.
According to Agence France-Presse, after the release of the law, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) announced on the 4th that it would withdraw all its journalists in Russia to ensure its safety. CNN and Bloomberg News also announced a moratorium on their journalists' activities in Russia. The world's largest Spanish-language media, Spain's agence Efe , announced on the 6th that it would suspend its news work in Russia. The Italian radio and television company (RAI) announced on the 6th that it would suspend reporting in Russia until further notice. The German Public Broadcasting Union (ARD) and German Television 2 (ZDF) have announced the suspension of coverage in Russia to study the impact of the new Russian law on their work, and they will "continue to keep the public fully informed about the situation in Russia and Ukraine through websites outside Russia." Radio France is investigating the impact of the new Russian regulation on journalists' work in order to decide whether to suspend journalistic work in Russia.
Russia's Newspaper Nouvelle announced that in order to avoid sanctions from the authorities, some content related to Ukraine will be deleted, "We were forced to delete a lot of content, but we decided to continue to work." "Russian independent media Znak announced the suspension of its publications and the closure of its website because of the numerous restrictions placed on media work by authorities.
Anna Colin Lebedev, a Crisis expert in Ukraine, argues that Russia's law on "disinformation" "makes it impossible for journalists to work in journalism" and that "sharing information publicly is now dangerous." ”
Russia is tightening its grip on public opinion and putting pressure on independent media and social platforms. On the 4th local time, Russian regulators announced that they would restrict the access of the Russian version of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Deutsche Welle, Radio Svoboda and the independent website Meduza in Russia. The regulator said the decisions were made at the request of the prosecutor's office on Feb. 24, the same day russia launched its offensive against Ukraine.
On the morning of the 4th, there was a problem when the home pages of the BBC and Deutsche Welle were opened, some articles about the war in Ukraine were inaccessible, and the home pages of Svoboda Radio and Meduza were completely inaccessible. Since the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine, the BBC's Russian-language news sites have averaged 10.7 million visits per week, three times the weekly average of 3.1 million. Last week, visits to the BBC's English-language website in Russia soared 252 per cent, jumping to 423,000. And last month, Russia shut down Deutsche Welle's offices, forcing its journalists to stop working, even though the station's website is still operational. The move was a counter-attack to Germany's ban on "Russia Today."
In addition, the Russian Internet regulator, the Federal Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media Supervision Agency (Roskomnadzor), ordered on the 4th to block the social platform Facebook in Russia, which previously restricted the access to Twitter, and could no longer access it if it did not "circumvent the wall".