Several international media including the BBC, CNN and the Bloomberg agency reacted to the announcement of a particularly restrictive Russian law with regard to the press by announcing the suspension of the work of all their journalists in Russia.
Access to information is increasingly restricted in Moscow. In recent days, many international media have announced the suspension of the work of all their journalists in Russia, after the establishment of a particularly restrictive Russian law with regard to journalists.
Russia on Friday signed a law introducing stiff prison terms for anyone who publishes “false information” about the military with sentences of up to 15 years in prison, for spreading information aimed at “discrediting” the military. military forces and also punishes any call to sanction Moscow.
Canada, United States, Germany, Italy, France…
In the wake of this decision, the Bloomberg News agency announced on Friday that it would temporarily suspend its “work of collecting information in Russia”, according to its editor John Micklethwait.
This law “seems written to make every freelance journalist a criminal, by simple association, which makes it impossible to continue to sustain any semblance of journalism in the country”, added the editor of the Bloomberg agency John Micklethwait.
The British public broadcasters BBC and Canadian CBC/Radio Canada also announced that they would temporarily suspend their journalistic coverage from Russia, before CNN followed suit a few hours later. On Friday, the American news channel also announced that it would immediately suspend the broadcasting of its programs in Russia “time to assess the situation”.
It was then the German public television channels ARD and ZDF which then announced on Saturday the temporary suspension of their coverage from Moscow, the time to “examine the consequences” of the recent Russian law threatening sanctions for any dissemination of “information lies about the army”. They “will, however, continue to inform the public comprehensively about what is happening in Russia and Ukraine” from other sites outside of Russia.
Same story on the side of Italy, where the public TV channel RAI has announced that it will take the same measure, which has become “necessary in order to protect the safety of journalists on the spot and the greatest possible freedom in information concerning this country. “. In Spain, the EFE press agency, the daily The country as well as the Spanish public radio and television announced on Saturday to suspend their activity in Russia, after the vote of a new law providing for firm prison for the dissemination of “false information” on the war in Ukraine, according to the criteria of the Russian authorities.
A context of “information warfare”
The independent Russian newspaper Novaïa Gazeta, he said he was “forced to delete a lot of content” to avoid sanctions but wanted to “continue to work”.
In France, the public radio group Radio France said on Saturday that it was awaiting legal expertise to decide whether or not to suspend the correspondence of its journalists in Russia. Initially, a communication manager for the group told AFP that Radio France was suspending the correspondence of its journalists, pending the results of a legal expertise and an opinion on this law. Radio France “does not suspend its correspondence from Moscow”, tweeted then the director of information of Radio France, Vincent Giret.
This Saturday, the Kremlin defended the necessary “firmness” of its law repressing “false information” on the Russian army to deal with an “information war” waged according to him against Russia in connection with the conflict in Ukraine.
“In the context of the information war, it was necessary to adopt a law whose firmness was adapted, which was done”, said the spokesman of the Russian presidency Dmitry Peskov, the day after its entry into force. . Finally, Moscow also blocked Facebook and “restricted access” to Twitter.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and is waging war across the country by shelling major cities. More than 1.2 million people have already fled the country, according to the UN.
