Russian bailiffs entered the office in the capital Moscow today of the US-funded Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty to inform the media about the ongoing court proceedings against her for unpaid fines, the Associated Press reported, quoted by BTA.
Radio Liberty condemned the move as a serious escalation of the Russian authorities’ campaign to expel her from the country.
“Radio Liberty will continue to fight these desperate attempts by the Kremlin to censor embarrassing truths,” said its director Jamie Fly, adding: “They will not drown out our voices with these harsh methods and we will not abandon our Russian listeners.”
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty announced today, quoted by Reuters, that its bank accounts in Moscow have been frozen.
The United States has expressed deep concern over the announcement. State Department spokeswoman Jalinda Porter described the decision as another attempt by Russian authorities to suppress independent media and deprive the country’s population of access to objective news.
Last year, the Russian regulatory body Roskomnadzor ordered the media, categorized as “foreign agents”, including Radio Free Europe, to add a lengthy explanation to news, social media posts and audiovisual material, stating that their content was created by a media “acting as a foreign agent”, the Associated Press recalls.
Measures applied to NGOs and the media that receive funding from abroad have been heavily criticized by freedom of speech advocates because the term “foreign agent” has a strongly negative connotation in Russia.
Roskomnadzor has opened 520 infringement proceedings against Radio Free Europe, which could lead to fines totaling equivalent to $ 2.4 million.
The media has asked the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to order Russia to refrain from applying the fines until the Strasbourg tribunal rules on Roskomnadzor’s rulings, which the radio says violate the European Charter of Human Rights.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinkon has condemned Russia’s growing pressure on Radio Liberty as a sign of weakness on the part of the authorities.
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