E-Paper
'Don't report interview with Ukrainian president': Russia watchdog to local media
"Roskomnadzor warns the Russian media about the necessity of refraining from publishing this interview," it informed in a statement posted on its site and social media platforms.
Russia's communication watchdog on Sunday warned the local media to refrain from broadcasting an interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as both countries are in full-blown war, news agency Reuters reported. Roskomnadzor, a federal service for supervision of communications, information technology and mass media, has also initiated an investigation against the outlets which had interviewed the Ukrainian leader.
"Roskomnadzor warns the Russian media about the necessity of refraining from publishing this interview," it informed in a statement posted on its site and social media platforms. A host of Russian outlets had done an interview with Zelenskiy, it also said without giving out names of the media platforms. Several independent outlets, including Meduza, TV Rain, Novaya Gazeta and Kommersant, had announced plans to release the interview. It also did not give a reason for its warning.
This comes immediately after Zelenskyy who has been fighting the Russia aggression for over a month now, posted the entire conversation on Telegram.
On February 24, Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion on its ex-Soviet neighbour. Since then, Russian authorities have steadily tightened controls over coverage related to the invasion. They have also been actively carrying out a crackdown on anti-war protesters.
Earlier in the day, Russian authorities blocked the website of German newspaper Bild. The Roskomnadzor said it blocked Bild’s website at the prosecutors’ request. Later in a statement, Bild said it has been putting Russian-language reports on Moscow's war in Ukraine and its slide toward “totalitarian dictatorship” on its website, and parts of its live video broadcasts have been subtitled in Russian. The broadcaster also noted that it also has a Russian-language Telegram channel.
Instagram and Facebook are already blocked in Russia after Roskomnadzor said they were being used to call for violence against Russian soldiers.
Russian authorities also have shut access to foreign media websites, including BBC, European news network Euronews, the US government-funded Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and Latvia-based website Meduza.
(With agency inputs)
