Russia Punishes Journalists Who Cover the War in Ukraine

Journalists have recently been harassed by the Russian authorities through arrests, raids and fines for publishing "false information" about the actions of the Russian army in Ukraine.

The Russian authorities, having dispatched the independent press of the country, are now targeting critical local media outlets in line with new laws establishing war censorship. One of the newspaper's victims is Listock, which is based in Gorno-Altaysk, in the Altai region of western Siberia. Listock was fined 300,000 roubles (3,300 euros) yesterday, and its editor, Olga Komarova, was fined another 100,000 roubles (1,100 euros). These are substantial sums for a small publication, and more fines may follow.

Reporters Without Borders reported that Listock's owner, Sergei Mikhailov, was jailed yesterday in Altai after being arrested the day before near Moscow and his residence and the newspaper's premises were searched. The newspaper editor faces up to 15 years in prison on charges of publishing "false information" about the Russian army in Ukraine. Listock has provided continuous coverage of the war since it began - including an interview with Volodymyr Zelenskiy, anti-war columns and reports about the Bucha massacre - and has repeatedly used the word "war" despite the term being banned by Roskomnadzor, the government-run agency that supervises broadcast media.

A similar sequence of events occurred in eastern Siberia's Khakassia region on 13 April. Mikhail Afanasyev, the editor of the local online newspaper Novy Focus, was raided by the police and his equipment confiscated in response to an article - now deleted - describing riot police refusing to go to Ukraine and describing activities in Ukraine undertaken by soldiers from Khakassia. Afanasyev is now being held in Abakan, the region’s capital, pending trial.

In the southern Siberian city of Prokopyevsk, Andrei Novashov, a correspondent for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s local offshoot, Sibir.Realii, has been under house arrest on a “false information” charge since 22 March for sharing a video on the Russian social media Vkontakte about Russian army attacks on the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

In Kudymkar, in the Urals region, Parma-Novosti editor Yana Yanovskaya was fined 50,000 roubles (550 euros) on 30 March for “discrediting” the armed forces in an anti-war editorial. Proceedings were initiated on 25 March against Isabella Evloyeva, the editor of Fortanga, the Caucasian Republic of Ingushetia’s only independent news website, for writing in a Telegram post that the letter Z used on Russian tanks in Ukraine was “synonymous with aggression, death, pain and barefaced manipulation.”

Other journalists have been sentenced in the southwestern city of Elista, in Kemerovo (in eastern Siberia) and in the Sverdlovsk region (in the Urals).
As a result of an amendment passed on 4 March, anyone, whether Russian or foreign, can be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison for spreading false information about the Russian military. As a result, independent media outlets such as Novaya Gazeta, The Bell, Taiga.info, VPost and Prospekt Mira have announced that they are ceasing to report on the conflict in Ukraine and removing previous articles detailing it to avoid criminal prosecution. According to another law passed on 22 March, disseminating false information concerning the activities of "Russian state bodies" abroad (including the president, the executive, the parliament, the national guard, and the Federal Security Service (FSB)) may also result in up to 15 years in prison.

On 18 May, parliament will hold its first reading of a bill intended to consolidate the government's control over news and information. It would allow the prosecutor-general to cancel the licence of any Russian or foreign media outlet and immediately block them – without warning and without reference to a court – in response to the dissemination of “false information” about the army, “lack of respect for the authorities,” calls for sanctions, and participation in “unauthorised events.” The licences of foreign media could also be rescinded “in retaliation” if they are from countries that have banned or restricted access to a Russian media outlet. The sanction will be final. There is no provision for any appeal procedure.

 In a sign of the climate of impunity threatening journalists, Novaya Gazeta editor and Nobel peace laureate Dmitry Muratov was attacked on the Moscow-Samara train on 7 April by a man who sprayed him with a mixture of red paint and acetone. After conducting their own investigation into the attack, the newspaper’s staff denounced the inaction of the police.

The situation of total censorship, in which most media are blocked or forced to close, and outspoken journalists are in danger, is prompting a mass exodus of Russian media personnel. 

 According to RSF's World Press Freedom Index for 2021, Russia is ranked 150th out of 180 countries.