Russia targets media outfits with news law, blocks Facebook, Twitter, as CNN, Bloomberg pull out

The Russian government on Friday, passed a new law many see as meant to suppress free speech and making it a crime to criticize its invasion of Ukraine.

The new law stipulates a 15-year imprisonment term for those deemed to have promoted what authorities see as “fake news” about the Russian military.

The new law gagging the media was signed by President Vladimir Putin just a day after it was passed by the Russian parliament.

According to Russian media reports, the law came following scenes of destruction resulting from that country’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine being played non-stop on television screens and social media sites around the world, which the country sees as creating opposition for Putin and the invasion of its neighbour.

Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of Russia’s State Duma legislative body, also said in a statement on Friday:

“Literally by tomorrow, this law will force punishment — and very tough punishment — on those who lied and made statements which discredited our armed forces.”

As part of the measures to gag the media, Russia also blocked access for its citizens to Facebook and Twitter, according to MediaZona, a Russian independent media outlet.

In a statement late on Friday, Russia’s media regulator Roskomnadzor said that “Facebook, whose parent company is called Meta, had violated federal law by restricting access to Russian state-owned accounts,” which the regulator said had violated “fundamental human rights and freedoms, as well as the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens.”

Social media postings depicting the horrors of the war in Ukraine and the bravery of its citizens and President Volodymyr Zelensky have helped sway world opinion staunchly against Russian forces, which Russia sees as detrimental to its position.

Read also: Russian businessman declares Putin wanted for mass murder, places $1m bounty on President’s head

Before the law was signed, the Russian government had clamped down on the media when it took down the website for Dozhd, the last remaining independent television news outlet operating in the country, over what it termed “deliberately spreading false information about the actions of Russian forces as part of a special operation.”

Nick Clegg, Meta’s President of Global Affairs, issued a statement on behalf of the company.

“Soon millions of ordinary Russians will find themselves cut off from reliable information, deprived of their everyday ways of connecting with family and friends and silenced from speaking out,” Clegg said in the statement, which was posted to Twitter.

“We will continue to do everything we can to restore our services so they remain available to people to safely and securely express themselves and organize for action.”

In its response to the new law, the CNN said it would stop broadcasting in Russia.

“CNN will stop broadcasting in Russia while we continue to evaluate the situation and our next steps moving forward,” a spokesman for the cable network said.

Following in the footsteps of CNN Bloomberg News also announced it was suspending its coverage in Russia as a result of the new law.

“The change to the criminal code, which seems designed to turn any independent reporter into a criminal purely by association, makes it impossible to continue any semblance of normal journalism inside the country,” the company said in its own statement Friday evening.

The BBC also announced on Friday that it was temporarily halting its operations inside Russia, and with its programming restricted there by the government, the BBC posted advice in Russian on Friday to social media on how to access its network.

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