Russia’s media watchdog has restricted access to the BBC and other independent media Web sites, it said yesterday, while lawmakers approved legislation to impose fines and harsh jail terms for publishing “fake news” about the army, in the latest move to silence dissent one week after Moscow invaded Ukraine.
Access to the Web sites of the BBC, independent news site Meduza, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and the Russian-language US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty were “limited” by Roskomnadzor following a request from prosecutors.
The agency said that in each case, the request was filed on Thursday last week, the day Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his attack on Ukraine.
Photo: AFP
The limits came as the Russian State Duma approved a bill that sets jail terms of varying lengths and fines against people who publish “knowingly false information” about the military.
“If the fakes led to serious consequences, [the legislation] threatens imprisonment of up to 15 years,” the Duma said in a statement.
Amendments were also passed to fine or jail anybody calling for sanctions against Russia.
Opening the parliament’s session, Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin railed against foreign social media, after Facebook was briefly inaccessible in Russia yesterday.
“All these IT companies beginning with Instagram, and ending with the others, are based in the United States of America. It is clear they are used as weapons. They carry hatred and lies. We need to oppose this,” he said.
The past year has seen an unprecedented crackdown on independent and critical voices in Russia that has intensified since the invasion.
Russian Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights Chairman Valery Fadeyev said that Western media was behind “a huge flow of false information that comes from Ukraine,” adding that the council had set up a project to stop it.
In another attack on critical voices, Russian police yesterday searched the office of the country’s most prominent rights group, Memorial, which was ordered to close late last year, sparking an international outcry.
Russian media have been instructed to publish only information provided by official sources, which describe the invasion as a military operation.
State-controlled broadcasters have reinforced government narratives and Moscow’s claim that Ukrainian soldiers are using civilians as human shields.
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