Russia blocks 81 EU-based media

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has published a list of the European Union-based media today, whose websites and broadcast are now blocked in Russia.

The list includes, for example, the German magazine “Spiegel”, Finnish “Helsingin Sanomat”, French “Le Monde”, Swedish “SVT”, European Politico. Altogether there are 81 media outlets in the ban list.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, all of them “systematically spread false information about the course of the special military operation”.

The move, as the Ministry clarifies, is the “retaliatory measure” after the decision taken earlier this year by the European Council. 

“The Council today decided to suspend the broadcasting activities in the European Union of four additional media outlets, which spread and support the Russian propaganda and war of aggression against Ukraine: Voice of Europe, RIA Novosti, Izvestia and Rossiyskaya Gazeta, - The European Council wrote on its website in May, - These media outlets are under the permanent direct or indirect control of the leadership of the Russian Federation, and have been essential and instrumental in bringing forward and supporting Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and for the destabilization of its neighboring countries”.

The Russian Ministry’s ban adds to the tightening of the military-type censorship established in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. Since February 2022, draconian laws have been adopted in Russia that make any independent journalism impossible. Dozens of journalists have since been prosecuted or had to leave the country for their safety.

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In October 2022 the Barents Observer was also requested closed by Russia’s General Prosecutor. According to the state attorney in Moscow, the Norwegian newspaper published “false news about terrorism” and sought to “destabilize the political situation in Russia.”