Several Western media organizations moved on Friday to suspend their journalistic operations in Russia in the wake of a harsh new crackdown on news and free speech by President Vladimir V. Putin’s government.
The Ny Times reports Bloomberg News and the BBC said their correspondents in Russia could no longer freely report because of the new censorship law signed by Mr. Putin on Friday, which effectively criminalized independent journalism on the invasion of Ukraine. Under the legislation, which could take effect as early as Saturday, journalists who simply describe the war as a “war” could be sentenced to prison.
“The change to the criminal code, which seems designed to turn any independent reporter into a criminal purely by association, makes it impossible to continue any semblance of normal journalism inside the country,” Bloomberg’s editor in chief, John Micklethwait, wrote in a note to staff.
CNN International, the global arm of CNN, said it had stopped airing in Russia, and ABC News said that it would not broadcast from the country on Friday. “We will continue to assess the situation and determine what this means for the safety of our teams on the ground,” ABC News, which is based in New York, said in a statement.
News organizations are not necessarily asking their correspondents to leave Russia, at least not yet.
“We are not pulling out BBC News journalists from Moscow,” Jonathan Munro, the interim director of BBC News, wrote on Twitter. “We cannot use their reporting for the time being but they remain valued members of our teams and we hope to get them back on our output as soon as possible.
The censorship law builds on the Kremlin’s insistence that characterizations of its attacks on Ukraine as a “war” or “invasion” rather than a “special military operation” amount to disinformation. Its passage prompted several independent Russian media outlets to shut down their operations, as well.
Several foreign news outlets said their journalists in Ukraine would continue to report on the Russian invasion. This week, the BBC said it would use shortwave radio frequencies to broadcast news in Kyiv and in parts of Russia.
Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, accused the BBC of playing “a determined role in undermining the Russian stability and security.” Early on Friday, the BBC reported that access to its website in Russia appeared to be restricted.
The Times report Putin has been dismantling the last vestiges of a Russian free press. On Thursday, the pillars of Russia’s independent broadcast media collapsed under pressure from the state.
Echo of Moscow, the freewheeling radio station that was founded by Soviet dissidents in 1990 and symbolized Russia’s new freedoms, was “liquidated” by its board. TV Rain, the youthful independent television station that calls itself “the optimistic channel,” said it would suspend operations indefinitely.
CBS News stated that it is no longer broadcasting from the country: 'CBS News is not currently broadcasting from Russia as we monitor the circumstances for our team on the ground given the new media laws passed today.'
The Daily Mail reports it was a similar view taken by ABC News, which has several correspondents working in the country currently.
'Because of the new censorship law passed in Russia today, some Western networks including ABC News are not broadcasting from the country tonight. We will continue to assess the situation and determine what this means for the safety of our teams on the ground,' the network said.
Several other news organizations including the Canadian Broadcasting CBC and the BBC have also suspended their reporting from Russia following the passing of the law.
'The CBC is very concerned about new legislation passed in Russia, which appears to criminalize independent reporting on the current situation in Ukraine and Russia,' the CBC said in a statement posted online.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting Russian authorities on Friday blocked Facebook in response to restrictions it said the social-media platform had placed on Russian media outlets including state news agency RIA Novosti, Sputnik, RT, television channel Zvezda, Lenta.ru and Gazeta.ru.
“Soon millions of ordinary Russians will find themselves cut off from reliable information,” Nick Clegg, president for global affairs at Meta, said in a statement. “We will continue to do everything we can to restore our services so they remain available to people to safely and securely express themselves and organize for action.”
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