Media crackdown

The world has been reminded in the past few weeks of the critical importance of a free press. Journalists have risked their lives to report on what is really happening in Ukraine, exposing as cynical propaganda the Kremlin’s claim that this is only a “special military operation”. A Sky News crew was shot at last week in an ambush; one member, Stuart Ramsay, was hit in the back and is now recovering in the UK. On Twitter, the Prime Minister praised these reporters’ courage, adding that the “free press will not be intimidated or cowed by barbaric and indiscriminate acts of violence”.

These words are unlikely to have been readable in Russia, however, where Twitter and Facebook have been blocked, and the authorities have closed down independent media outlets. The result is a Russian public denied the truth about