Direct Last minute in Ukraine
In March Closes 'Nóvaya Gazeta', the last independent newspaper in Russia
A Russian court today stripped the
'Novaya Gazeta'
newspaper of its media license, effectively banning the publication from operating inside Russia.
The liquidation of the outlet comes after a complaint filed by Russia's media regulator
Rozkomnadzor
.
All this in the midst of the Russian authorities' campaign to
silence critical media
.
'Novaya Gazeta' is widely considered Russia's "bravest" newspaper.
Between 2000 and 2021, six of the Novaya Gazeta journalists were killed.
Among them Anna Politkovskaya on October 7, 2006.
'Novaya Gazeta', which has faced pressure since February to prevent it from reporting on
Russia's attack on Ukraine
, was accused of failing to provide documents related to a change of ownership in 2006. Under this legal pretext, the outlet has finally been liquidated .
The editor-in-chief of 'Novaya Gazeta',
Dimitri Muratov
, has reacted to the decision of the Basmanny district court: "It is a tailor-made political decision without the slightest legal basis".
The journalist has promised that the decision would be appealed.
Muratov has never been afraid to speak up and defend dissenting voices, while Russian propaganda these days spread warmongering messages to erase Ukraine as a country and attack Europe afterwards.
The head of RT, Margarita Simonian, has declared in several debates that freedom of expression in Russia must be limited.
There have been doubts for some time about whether 'Novaya Gazeta' could continue reporting in the future.
To prevent journalists from continuing to express themselves under another brand, tomorrow, September 6, the same court will consider another lawsuit by Roskomnadzor to invalidate the registration of the publication 'Novaya rasskaz-gazeta', which the employees of 'Novaya Gazeta' launched in July.
Only propaganda in Russia
The war in Ukraine has devastated Russia's weak ecosystem of independent media.
'Meduza' is banned in the country and the 'Echo of Moscow' radio station, with liberal but moderate voices, was forced to close.
'Novaya Gazeta' suspended its work on March 28 after receiving a second warning from Roskomnadzor.
Apparently, his 'crime' was the mention of an entity that had been declared a "foreign agent" but had not been given the corresponding label, something mandatory in Putin's Russia.
The newspaper has played a
historical role in modern Russia
.
He had the support of Mikhail Gorbachev in his early years, who gave part of the funds that he had received with the Peace Prize.
Last year, Muratov himself won the same award, announcing that he would not keep "a single penny" of his prize money.
Later, in a defiant gesture in a country that seeks any aid to Ukraine, he sold the Nobel Peace medal for $103.5 million to help Ukrainian refugees.
Last Saturday Muratov, a personal friend of Gorbachev, was the one who carried the portrait of the Soviet leader at the funeral.
As fate would have it, Gorbachev's death occurred days before this deadly stab at 'Novaya Gazeta' by Russian authorities who
claim to be fighting Nazism in Ukraine
but carry out a savage repression of dissent or anything that stay away from the xenophobic and warmongering propaganda that festers obedient Russian television every morning.
Elena Milashina, one of the most prominent reporters for 'Novaya Gazeta' has done crucial investigations into abuses in Chechnya, documenting the murders of LGBT people.
And also reporting on the murders of the opponents of the leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov.
"Russia is a prison"
When the war against Ukraine began, 'Novaya Gazeta' published a historic front page in which it stated, bluntly, what is forbidden to say in Russia: "Russia. Bombs. Ukraine."
"We will publish this issue of 'Novaya Gazeta' in two languages: Ukrainian and Russian. Because we do not recognize Ukraine as an enemy and the Ukrainian language as the language of the enemy. And we never recognize it," Muratov said in his role as editor-in-chief. .
Then came the new Kremlin censorship laws, which prohibit "discrediting" the army by publishing anything that is not the official version of a war that cannot be called "Special Military Operation" but is mandatory.
The harassment of everything that comes from
'Novaya Gazeta' has been constant
.
After the suspension of the publication (which stopped printing and updating its website, hoping to survive until the climate of censorship stabilized), some of its employees went abroad and began to publish 'Novaya Gazeta.
Europe'.
Soon after, the publication's website was blocked in Russia at the request of the General Prosecutor's Office.
In July, the journalists who remained in Russia launched the publication 'Novaya Rasskazh-Gazeta', but it was also blocked a few days later after a request from the General Prosecutor's Office.
That same month, a Moscow court fined 'Novaya Gazeta' for a video message from its editor-in-chief, Dimitri Muratov, criticizing the war in Ukraine.
When Muratov won the Nobel at the end of 2021, journalists were already noticing an increase in pressure.
"We continue to come out on paper because in prisons it is the only way to read the newspaper and Russia is still a prison. When it ceases to be, we will only be on the internet," Nikita Kondratiev, from the Department of Justice, explained to EL MUNDO in October with black humor. website news.
In February the war broke out, in March paper died and now silence has been imposed.
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