Woodkirk Stone
Russian authorities on Friday restricted online access to Deutsche Welle and other global media.
Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor said access to the websites of the Russian-language editions of the BBC, the independent platform Meduza and the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Svoboda, had also been “limited”.
According to the regulator, prosecutors filed their access restriction request on February 24 – the day Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a war on Ukraine.
Russia had already banned DW’s Russian service from broadcasting and revoked the accreditation of its journalists.
Control the narrative
Russian lawmakers in the State Duma on Friday passed a bill providing for up to 15 years in prison for publishing “fake news” about the Russian military.
DW Russia Affairs analyst Konstantin Eggert said the legislation “is designed only to silence people”.
Russian journalists said they were instructed to only publish information provided by official Russian sources, who described the war as a “military operation”.
As Russian state-controlled media dubbed Kremlin stories about the situation in Ukraine, other outlets were forced to shut down.
On Thursday, the Ekho Mosvky radio station shut down after being taken off the air for its coverage of the war in Ukraine. The radio station is majority-owned by Russian energy giant Gazprom, but it was one of the last liberal-leaning media platforms still accessible.
A few hours after Ekho Mosvky’s announcement, the independent television channel Dozhd also announced its closure.
Bypass censorship
Peter Limbourg, chief executive of DW, called on Russian users to use circumvention methods, such as VPN software, to continue accessing DW content.
“Let’s all work together so that the ties between us don’t break completely,” Limbourg said.
“We want to provide you, dear Russian citizens, with independent information in these difficult times of confrontation. This includes making it clear that the heavy fighting in Ukraine is the result of a war of aggression ordered by President Putin and of which he is responsible. .”
Eggert, who described Russia’s “fake news” laws as “blanket censorship”, said people can still access independent information, but they “will really need to want it”.
“As long as there is internet, they can [access information],” he said.