Russia’s liberal radio station Echo of Moscow announced today that its board had decided to disband the station in a move to block one of the few remaining liberal media outlets the Kremlin has tolerated to date.
“The majority of Ekho Moskvy’s board of directors (Moscow Echo) has decided to dismantle Ekho Moskvy’s radio station and website,” its head, Alexei Venediktov, wrote in his Telegram account.
The move came shortly after a request was made by the Attorney General’s Office to block access to the Dojd (Internet TV channel) and the (Moscow) Echo radio station due to its coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Dojd Internet network and the Moscow radio station Echo, along with the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, stood out because they did not follow the Kremlin in covering the Moscow invasion of Ukraine, as did the vast majority.
Russian authorities have banned the media from using information other than that provided by the Kremlin, the military and various ministries, which portrays the invasion of Ukraine as a simple “special operation” limited to the east of the country.
Russia is regularly presented by non-governmental organizations as one of the most restrictive countries in the world in terms of press freedom.
The country is thus ranked 150th out of a total of 180 countries based on the latest Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders.
Several media outlets, including the Dojd channel, have been described by authorities as “foreign agents”.
Echo of Moscow, part of the Gazprom gas giant, built in 1990, has always sought to cultivate its independence and is one of the country’s most respected media outlets.
Until this week it was one of the few in the country where oppositionists could express themselves.
Vice
In any case, “in Russia there are enough laws to convict a journalist for any reason. “And enough tools to destroy a media outlet,” said Galina Timchenko, director of the news website Meduza.
And “censorship is already in place”, following last Saturday’s ban on the media from using the terms “INVASION”, “ATTACK”, “DECLARATION OF WAR” and giving information about civilian dead, victims of the Russian army.
Nevertheless, Meduza welcomes readers with the glorious title “WAR”. “In any case, Roskomnadzor (the Russian censorship machine) will soon unplug us,” said a website reporter.
“Other media will be blocked,” said Lev Ponomarev, a prominent human rights activist who was arrested along with thousands of Russians in anti-war protests across Russia.
In addition to Echo of Moscow and Dojd, at least six other Russian media outlets have been silenced by the Kremlin’s censorship machine since the invasion of Ukraine began.
No independent media outlet will be saved, not even the Novaïa Gazeta, whose director Dmitry Muratov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021, predicts Jean Cavelier, media.
“They will be blocked overnight, as well as any local version that will not submit.
The Internet, a “space of freedom”
“The war on media is the second front of the invasion of Ukraine,” said Galina Timchenko. “Because the Kremlin is afraid of losing this information war,” Lev Ponomarev added.
On the part of the state-controlled media, the propaganda machines are working at full speed. Thus, the Russian public can, for example, hear the eponymous Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Kiselyov comment on his show introducing the Russian nuclear arsenal: “Why should there be a world in which Russia will not exist?”.
“It’s like we went back to the Soviet era, but with the difference that now there is the Internet, which remains a space of freedom,” said Jean Cavellier, who is waiting for websites to be blocked and journalists arrested.
Alexei Mukhin, director of the Kremlin-friendly Center for Political Intelligence, said “censorship is simply impossible in the age of the Internet” but denied that there had been an attack on “respectable” media.
In his opinion, the Russian government is facing “political opponents who have gone crazy and are participating in the information war, transmitting Ukrainian propaganda and causing panic.”
For Galina Timchenko, the outcome of this war is unquestionable: “I have the impression that Putin’s ultimate goal is to be left alone with those who are with him. “The others will be forced to leave or they will be exterminated.”
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