- All current developments in live blog
The state power in Russia is now also taking massive action against the reporting of foreign correspondents in the country about the war in Ukraine. The State Duma voted yesterday in Moscow to amend the law accordingly. There is a risk of heavy fines and up to 15 years in prison. According to the wording of the law, it is punishable by law to spread alleged false information about Russian soldiers, to discredit Russian armed forces and to call for sanctions against Russia. Putin signed the bills yesterday.
- ZIB 1: What does the new Russian media law mean for reporting from Russia – not least for the ORF? And what does the new censorship say about how Putin himself judges his attack on Ukraine? ZIB correspondent Peter Fritz analyses.
- ZIB 1: ZIB correspondents Ernst Gelegs and Christian Wehrschütz report on the latest developments in the Ukraine war.
According to the Interfax news agency, Russia’s media and telecommunications regulator blocked several foreign media outlets, including the BBC and Deutsche Welle. The authorities accuse the company of spreading misinformation. Voice of America, the internet newspaper Meduza and Radio Free Europa/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) are also affected. In addition, Facebook is blocked in Russia in response to the shutdown of Russian pages on the social network. Twitter is also said to be only available to a limited extent since last night.
“dw.com” blocked
As the German international broadcaster DW announced yesterday, “dw.com” had been blocked in all broadcast languages in Russia since the night. DW director Peter Limbourg addressed a letter to Russian users, which was also to be distributed on social networks. Regarding the block, he said: “I very much regret that and ask you, if possible, to use means of circumventing the Internet blockade to reach our programs.” Under the letter, which could be read on the DW website, the broadcaster added Posts about ways to bypass a ban.
- ZIB 1: The pressure is growing on the West to intervene militarily – in view of the pictures from Ukraine. Can NATO stick to its no? Raphaela Schaidreiter reports.
As the BBC reported, access to its own news website, as well as several other Western media outlets and Google Playstore, was also partially or fully restricted.
Channel dissolved or banned
The Russian authorities have massively tightened their crackdown on critical voices in the country’s media since the beginning of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. The independent radio station Echo Moskwy (Moscow Echo), for example, announced its dissolution on Thursday after being banned from broadcasting for its coverage of the invasion. The authorities have also banned the independent TV station Doschd.
After the invasion of Ukraine, Russian media were instructed to only use official information from the Russian authorities for their reporting. Terms such as “attack” or “invasion” in connection with the invasion of Ukraine are prohibited. The authorities portray the war of aggression against Ukraine as merely a “special military operation” or even a peacekeeping mission to protect Russian-speaking Ukrainians. Anyone who does not delete content that violates the guidelines must expect a blockade, it was said last week. This also applies to the dissemination of “false information about the shelling of Ukrainian cities and the death of civilians in Ukraine by actions of the Russian army”.
- ORF III Current: Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine’s complete political and military surrender. Political scientist Gerhard Mangott talks about Putin’s plans in an interview.
Attack on freedom of the press
For the journalists’ union in the GPA, the law means “a ban on journalistic work, including for correspondents of Austrian media in Russia. This is an outrageous attack on freedom of the press,” said Chairman Eike-Clemens Kullmann, severely criticizing it. Only being allowed to use official Russian sources, no longer being allowed to speak of a war and instead reporting it as “large-scale but regionally limited combat operations” is completely unacceptable.
Meanwhile, the ORF temporarily brought correspondent Miriam Beller back to Vienna in order to be able to continue reporting in any case. Office managers Paul Krisai and Carola Schneider will remain in Moscow.
EU: media sanctions
The EU already put the ban on Russian propaganda channels RT and Sputnik into effect on Wednesday. At TV channel RT, formerly Russia Today, the ban includes five legally independent organizations that broadcast the program in English, German, French and Spanish.
Sputnik is a radio station and news channel that distributes its programming over the Internet. “These companies played a key and instrumental role in planning and supporting aggression against Ukraine and in destabilizing neighboring countries,” an EU official said. The ban applies until the aggression is stopped and Russia ends its propaganda activities against the EU and its member states.
Source: Nachrichten
