World

The BBC has suspended its operation in Russia

by

London, Thanasis Gavos

The BBC has announced that it is temporarily suspending the work of all its journalists in Russia after a new law introduced by summary proceedings introduced by the Kremlin which provides for up to 15 years in prison for spreading “false” information about the country’s armed forces.

The management of the British news agency explained that the safety of staff is the highest priority and that they are not prepared to “expose staff to the risk of prosecution simply because they do their job”.

It was also confirmed that the BBC Russian-language service will continue to operate from facilities outside Russia.

The law also provides for the prosecution of those who publicly call for sanctions against Russian interests.

According to the British media, the Russian supervisory body Roskomnadzor now obliges the Russian media to broadcast news only from government sources and the use of the terms “war” and “invasion” for what is happening in Russia has been banned.

Western sources such as the BBC, Deutsche Welle and Radio Free Europe have been blocked by the Russian supervisory authority for spreading false information, Interfax reported.

However, the BBC referred its users in Russia to the operation of the network in the so-called ‘dark web’.

Also since the beginning of the week, the BBC radio has started broadcasting on two new frequencies in the shorts in the region, frequencies that are received clearly in Kyiv and in parts of Russia.

The BBC World Service’s English-language program is broadcast on these frequencies for four hours a day.

Earlier in the week, it was announced that listeners to the BBC World Service’s Russian service had more than tripled from 3.1 million to 10.7 million last week.

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