Liberal Russia's Television and Radio Stations Suspend Operations over Ukraine
Media watchdog ordered by prosecutor general to 'restrict access' to TV Rain and landmark radio station Ekho Moskvy.
Due to its broadcasts about Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, liberal Russian television channel TV Rain (Dozhd) has temporarily stopped its broadcasts. “We need strength to exhale and understand how to work further. We really hope that we will return to the air and continue our work,” the network’s CEO, Natalia Sindeyeva, wrote on social media on Thursday.
Ekho Moskvy radio station, one of Russia's last remaining liberal media outlets, was also dissolved by its board on Thursday after facing pressure over its coverage of the Russian invasion in Ukraine.
In Russia, one of the leading news and current affairs channels had been taken off the air on Tuesday, but it was still broadcasting on YouTube on Thursday after the board's decision was announced.
“The Ekho Moskvy board of directors has decided by a majority of votes to liquidate the radio channel and the website of Ekho Moskvy,” Editor-in-Chief Alexei Venediktov said on the messaging app Telegram.
Venediktov told the Reuters news agency earlier this week that the station will not change its independent editorial philosophy, which has been its trademark for three decades.
The Russian prosecutor general ordered the country's media watchdog to "restrict access" to TV Rain and Ekho Moskvy this week.
Authorities cited "purposeful and systematic" postings of violent or extremist information as the reason for the ban.
Additionally, they claim that the media outlets were punished for spreading "deliberately false information" about the actions of Russian soldiers in Ukraine.
Russia denies its actions on February 24 constitute an invasion and says that its purpose is not to occupy territory, but rather to destroy Ukraine's military capabilities and capture what it deems dangerous nationalists. Ukraine and the West reject that pretext as baseless propaganda.
Russia has been experiencing a rapid decline in press freedoms in recent years, and the recent moves represent the latest blow to independent media.
A number of media workers and independent outlets - including TV Rain - have recently been designated "foreign agents" by authorities, a designation that ensnares them in official paperwork and exposes them to public contempt.
Since President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, pressure on the Kremlin has increased, with most mainstream media outlets and state-controlled organizations sticking closely to the Kremlin's language.
The Kremlin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to speak directly about the situation at Ekho Moskvy, stating the board of directors made the decision to shut it down.
