the essential Vladimir Putin also declares war on information. With the new “false information” law passed this Friday, March 4, the media and social networks are fighting to continue their activities in Russia.
The dilemma for foreign media present in Russia: continue to inform or defend their teams? Vladimir Putin is tightening the noose on freedom of speech in the media and social media by passing a law this Friday to combat “fake news.”
It provides for harsh prison terms of up to 15 years for anyone who spreads “false information” about the army or calls for sanctions against Moscow.
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Public radio group Radio France, which has seven national channels including France Inter and Franceinfo, announced this Saturday March 5 that it is awaiting the opinion of a legal expert to determine whether Russian law applies to foreign journalists before suspending its journalists’ correspondence in Russia. He also requested the opinion of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), a major public media union.
Sylvain Tronchet, Radio France’s special representative in Russia, tweeted that he “will take a break to assess the implications of the new arrangements made in Russia.”
This report will take a break while it assesses the impact of the new arrangements in Russia. Listen to the radio, read us. https://t.co/ObKz5vsvfb
— Sylvain Tronchet (@SylvainTronchet) March 5, 2022
At the beginning of the week in the Kyiv region, an attack was made on the team of the British TV channel. One of the journalists was injured, their employer told Sky News on Saturday, March 5. Faced with the dangers of practicing a profession locally, several chains have opted for security.
It was the British public broadcasters BBC and Canada’s CBC/Radio Canada who first announced the suspension of their local operations. Bloomberg News and the American news channel CNN decided at the same time that it was “time to assess the situation.”
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Then Germany followed suit. The two public broadcasters ARD and ZDF are “temporarily interrupting coverage from their studios in Moscow,” according to a press release. They “will continue to comprehensively inform the public about what is happening in Russia and Ukraine” from other sites outside of Russia. Finally, it was the turn of the Italian channel RAI and the Spanish news agency Efe to withdraw their correspondents for fear of reprisals.
Conversely, the European Union has banned broadcasts from two Russian state media, RT and Sputnik, accused of being the Kremlin’s “propaganda tools” during an invasion of a neighboring country.
Social networks are also in the viewfinder
Almost simultaneously, the Russian government blocks access to the Facebook network in Russia. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, already reported on Monday, Feb. 28, that pro-Russian groups are orchestrating various social media disinformation campaigns using fake profiles or hacked accounts to portray Ukraine as a mere pawn in the hands of Westerners.
The target is the blue bird Twitter. The Russian Internet regulator restricts access to this social network. AFP journalists from Russia on Friday evening saw that the feed was no longer being updated.
This repressive arsenal extends to the general population, not just information professionals, but journalists in this context are even more at risk.