Russia has instituted practical military censorship of the press operating in the country. The Duma, the lower house of Parliament, approved this Friday (4) a law that provides up to 15 years in prison for journalists who spread what the government considers fake news about the war in Ukraine. It was then sanctioned by President Vladimir Putin.
In addition, Facebook and Twitter were blocked for good in the country, after days of limited access, and other social networks that kept content considered anti-war by the Kremlin should follow the same route.
The British network BBC, which had access to its website restricted by the Russian government due to critical coverage of the conflict, announced the suspension of its operation in Russia due to the risk of arrest of its professionals. “Personnel safety is paramount, and we are not prepared to expose them to the risk of criminal action just for doing their job. Our journalists in Ukraine and around the world will continue to report on the invasion,” Tim said in a statement. Davie, the network’s managing director.
The independent newspaper Novaia Gazeta (new newspaper), edited by the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize co-winner Dmitri Muratov, published on its networks that it would remove all content related to Putin’s action.
“Military censorship in Russia has evolved into the threat of criminal prosecution against journalists and citizens who disclose information about hostilities that differs from Ministry of Defense press releases. Therefore, we will remove material on this topic,” the statement said.
This is an unprecedented situation in the age of instant and interconnected news in which we live, but far from uncommon for a country at war. All conflicts since the press began to cover them, starting with the Crimean War lost by the Russians in 1856, have been the subject of censorship by governments.
This is regardless of the coloring of the regimes that apply it. With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, anyone who spread the fake news of the time could face up to life imprisonment in the most democratic United Kingdom, among other sanctions, as well as in autocratic imperial Germany.
In World War II, one of the first measures after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor threw the US into the conflict in 1941 was the establishment of the Bureau of Censorship. Here, however, the press, in general, regulated itself and in line with the government, without the friction that we now see in Russia.
Examples spread around the world. The news in question is that there is a lot of media critical of the Kremlin in Russia and that we are in 2022, with a generation of consumers used to unlimited access to what they want, whether good or bad, through their cellphone screens.
Academic debate aside, life for Russian journalists is quite complicated. THE sheet spoke again with Ivan (not his real name), who worked for vehicles such as Novaia Gazeta. Two days ago, he said he was terrified at the prospect of the law being passed. Now, he claims that he will leave the country.
The tourniquet has been tightened over Putin’s two decades. In his first term (2000-04), he tried to gradually control free-to-air TV, the average Russian’s biggest source of information.
From then on, it restricted the work of printed newspapers, which abandoned independent editorial lines over the years. Even Novaia Gazeta only guaranteed theirs because of Muratov’s good contacts with the Putinist elite, who saw him as a veneer of intellectual freedom in the system.
As of 2012, after the first major demonstrations for yet another Putin election, a law created the figure of the foreign agent to identify vehicles, NGOs and people with external funding. They became subject to a draconian enforcement regime that prevented many from working.
The war ended the process. First, the Russian communications regulatory agency determined that the war should be called a “special military operation”, not by its name or by variants such as invasion or aggression, which took off the traditional radio Echo in Moscow, which closed after the doors, and TV Chuva, which suspended operations.
All must return one way or another, in virtual incarnations outside of Russia. But degrading access to websites, something Moscow does very well, seems to ensure that they stay out of the country’s “mainstream” at least during the conflict.
“Starting tomorrow, the law will force a very harsh punishment on those who lie and make statements that discredit our Armed Forces,” said Duma President Viacheslav Volodin. In addition to official fake news, comments calling for further sanctions on Russia are also prohibited.
The impact of the decision on the movement that was forming against the war, uniting celebrities and intellectuals in the country, is still uncertain. On the streets, the rhythm remains the same: the few who defy the ban on acts without prior authorization end up being detained for a few hours by the police. There have been, since the beginning of the conflict, 8,237 people, according to the NGO OVD-Info, itself a foreign agent in the Kremlin’s view.
