BBC reporting in Russia ‘blocked’
THE BBC was forced to abandon reporting from within Russia after Moscow passed draconian new censorship laws yesterday.
The Russian authorities brought in legislation which could see people jailed for up to 15 years for publishing ‘fake news’ about the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.
BBC director-general Tim Davie said: ‘This legislation appears to criminalise the process of independent journalism. It leaves us no other option than to temporarily suspend the work of all BBC News journalists and their support staff within the Russian Federation while we assess the full implications of this unwelcome development.
‘The safety of our staff is paramount and we are not prepared to expose them to the risk of criminal prosecution simply for doing their jobs.’
He added: ‘Our BBC News service in Russian will continue to operate from outside Russia.’
The information war being waged by the Kremlin intensified yesterday as it appeared to have blocked the BBC’s English language website as well as its Russian language site. Both have seen a huge surge in traffic since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Yesterday the corporation responded by putting detailed advice on social media on how to use ‘circumvention tools’, including the dark web, to access BBC News.
The Kremlin has accused the British broadcaster of playing a ‘determined role in undermining Russian stability and security’.
Russia’s lower house of parliament – the Duma – yesterday approved the legislation making it a criminal offence to publish ‘fake news’ about its armed forces. This is thought to include the Kremlin’s determination that the invasion of Ukraine should not be described as a war but as a ‘special military operation’.
A BBC News source said last night: ‘This law seems to make it impossible to tell people truthfully what’s happening. We can’t risk our staff being sent to jail for reporting the news.’
Jonathan Munro, the BBC’s interim director of news, said it was not pulling out its journalists from Moscow, adding: ‘We hope to get them back on our output as soon as possible.’
The BBC revealed on Wednesday that as part of a ‘resilience operation’ to ensure its news was available in Ukraine and Russia it was launching two shortwave frequencies in the region. These will broadcast four hours of World Service news in English each day.