Thursday 11 July 2024
Islamabad (Urdu Point. DW Urdu. July 11, 2024) Russia has banned The Moscow Times, an online English newspaper popular among Russian immigrants living abroad.
The Russian Prosecutor General's Office on Wednesday declared the Moscow Times an "undesirable organization". The official announcement comes amid an ongoing crackdown by the Moscow government against government-critical media outlets and the opposition.
Following the official announcement, The Moscow Times must cease any activity in Russia and anyone who cooperates with the paper faces up to five years in prison.
This is a tougher move than the government's move to label the same news outlet as a "foreign agent" in November.
Individuals and organizations classified in the foreign agent category are required to increase financial scrutiny and include a notice of any public content they post that is prominently classified as a foreign agent.
The Moscow Times moved its editorial operations out of Russia in 2022 after the passage of a law punishing the publication of material defaming the Russian military and its war in Ukraine.
The newspaper is published in English and Russian, but its Russian-language website was blocked in Russia several months after the start of the war in Ukraine.
The newspaper wrote in an editorial note on the Moscow government's decision yesterday, "The labeling of The Moscow Times as 'undesirable' is the latest in efforts to suppress our reporting on the truth about Russia and its war in Ukraine." is part. This decision will make it more difficult for us to do our work, expose (our) reporters and fixers inside Russia to the risk of criminal prosecution and make sources more reluctant to talk to us.
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Refusal to bow to pressure
"We refuse to bow to this pressure," the newspaper added. We refuse to be silent.''
The newspaper later reduced its print edition to a weekly and then moved fully online in 2017.
Russia has systematically targeted people and organizations critical of the Kremlin in recent years, labeling many as "foreign agents" and some as "undesirables." Other outlets condemned include the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, whose editor Dmitry Muratov has won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Russia has also imprisoned leading opposition figures, including anti-corruption campaigners and critics of President Vladimir Putin, Alexei Navalny, as well as Vladimir Kara-Mirza and Ilya Yashin. Alexei Navalny died in custody in February.
(AP)
