A pedestrian walks past a BBC logo at Broadcasting House in central London, 22 October 2012. REUTERS / Olivia Harris
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- Russian law threatens imprisonment for distributors of “fake news”.
- The head of the BBC says the law seems to criminalize journalism
- Moscow says the Western media is showing anti-Russian bias
- The West has banned Russian RT because of its coverage of Ukraine
LONDON / LOS ANGELES, March 4 – Global media reported that they were stopping reports in Russia to protect their journalists after a new law threatened with up to 15 years in prison for spreading “fake news”.
The British BBC reported on Friday that it had temporarily stopped reporting in Russia, and by the end of the day, the Canadian television company and Bloomberg News said their journalists were also shutting down. CNN and CBS News said they would stop broadcasting in Russia, and other publications removed the authors of Russian journalists while assessing the situation.
After the Russian attack on Ukraine provoked almost universal condemnation, Moscow tried to retaliate in the information war. Its communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, blocked Meta Platform Inc’s Facebook (FB.O), citing 26 cases of discrimination against Russian media. TASS reported that Russia has also restricted access to Twitter. (TWTR.N)
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Russian officials have said that Russia’s enemies such as the United States and its Western European allies have spread false information in an attempt to sow discord among the Russian people.
Lawmakers passed amendments to the penal code, turning the dissemination of “false” information into a crime punishable by fines or imprisonment. They also imposed fines on anyone calling for sanctions against Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.
The Kremlin did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on media companies’ moves to stop reporting.
The news executors said the new law would impede independent reporting and endanger journalists, and that their organizations should balance the obligation to the public to report the news with the protection of journalists against retaliation.
“The change in the Penal Code, which seems designed to turn any independent reporter into a criminal by association only, makes it impossible to continue any resemblance to normal journalism in the country,” Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micheletwaet said in a statement. of his staff. “We will not do this to our reporters.
BBC Director-General Tim Davy said the new legislation appears to criminalize the process of independent journalism.
“This leaves us with no choice but to suspend the work of all BBC News journalists and their support staff in the Russian Federation while we assess the full consequences of this undesirable development,” he said in a statement.
He added that the BBC News Service in Russian will continue to operate outside Russia. Jonathan Munro, interim director of BBC News, said the corporation was not “withdrawing” journalists from Moscow, but was assessing the impact of the new law.
Canadian Broadcasting Corp., the country’s public broadcaster, said it had temporarily suspended ground reports in Russia to seek clarity on the new law.
The American TV presenter ABC News stated that he will stop broadcasting from Russia, as he assesses the situation. The Washington Post, Dow Jones and Reuters said they appreciated the new media law and the situation.
“Our top priorities are the safety of our employees and covering this important story fairly and fully,” said Dow Jones spokesman Steve Severinghouse. “Being in Moscow, talking freely with officials and capturing the mood is the key to this mission.”
By joining forces in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin has caused the worst crisis between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War, shattering financial and commodity markets, sending the ruble in the tail and causing economic isolation that has never been seen in such a large economy. .
Western governments and technology platforms have also banned Russia’s RT news network, accusing the European Union of systematically misinformation about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
FREEDOM OF THE MEDIA
Russia’s foreign ministry says the Western media offers a partial – and often anti-Russian – view of the world, while failing to hold its own leaders responsible for corruption or devastating foreign wars such as Iraq.
Western leaders, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former US President Barack Obama, have long expressed concern about state media dominance in Russia and say the freedoms won by the collapse of the Soviet Union have been revoked by Putin.
The new law was drafted by the upper house of the Russian parliament and signed by Putin, TASS reported. This seems to give the Russian state much stronger powers to fight, turning the spread of false information about a prison crime. Read more
“If counterfeits lead to serious consequences, then up to 15 years in prison is threatened,” said a statement from the lower house of parliament, known as the Duma in Russian.
Earlier, Russia cut off access to the websites of several foreign news organizations, including the BBC, Voice of America and Deutsche Welle, to spread false information about its war in Ukraine. Read more
The BBC has said it will begin broadcasting four hours of English-language news a day on shortwave radio in Ukraine and parts of Russia, reviving outdated technology used during the Cold War to circumvent state censorship.
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Writing by Kate Holton and Guy Falkonbridge; Additional reports by Joseph Nasr, Dawn Khmelevsky and David Ljunggren; Edited by Andrew Havens and Daniel Wallis
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