Quote:
Originally Posted by Alf
(Post 11146182)
Why? She was just a protester. Has there been incidents in Putin's Russia were protesters have never seen daylight again, to make you think that?
I'm not sure it's like the UK where journalists like Julian Assange are locked up and never get to see daylight for the crime of doing journalism.
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DUSSELDORF, Germany
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a bill introducing a prison sentence of up to 15 years for those spreading information that goes against the Russian government’s narrative on the war in Ukraine.
The bill criminalizing the intentional spreading of what Russia deems to be “fake” reports about the war was quickly rubber-stamped by both houses of the Kremlin-controlled parliament earlier in the day.
Russian authorities have repeatedly decried reports of Russian military setbacks or civilian deaths in Ukraine as “fake” news. State media outlets refer to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “special military operation” rather than a “war” or an “invasion.”
Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the lower house of Russian parliament, said the new measure "will force those who lied and made statements discrediting our armed forces to bear very grave punishment.”
“I want everyone to understand, and for society to understand, that we are doing this to protect our soldiers and officers, and to protect the truth,” he added.
The new law envisages sentences of up to three years or fines for spreading what authorities deem to be false news about the military, but the maximum punishment rises to 15 years for cases deemed to have led to “severe consequences.”
Also Friday, the state communications watchdog, Roskomnadzor, blocked Facebook and five foreign media organizations based abroad which publish news in Russian in a sweeping action to establish even tighter controls over the information about the Russian invasion of Ukraine reaching ordinary Russians.
Roskomnadzor, blocked Facebook, citing its alleged “discrimination” of the Russian media and state information resources. The agency said in a statement that the restrictions introduced by Facebook owner Meta on the Russian news channel RT and other state-controlled media violate the Russian law.
Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said in a tweet in response to Russia’s action that “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.”
“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,” Clegg added.
The Russian media blocks also affected five foreign media organizations based abroad which publish news in Russian. They included the BBC, the U.S. government-funded Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and Latvia-based website Meduza. Together, they are among the most influential and often critical foreign media publishing in Russian.