Russia

UPDATED: Russia curbs access to BBC and other foreign news websites

cde.news desk 4 March 2022, 09:20 · 2 min read

epa06486019 A photograph showing the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) headquarters in Central London, Britain, 30 January 2017. A pay review published by BBC today has stated there is 'no gender bias between employees' at the organisation, however some male presenters have agreed to have their pay cut to help pay for pay parity between men and women working at the organisation. EPA-EFE/WILL OLIVER

MOSCOW, March 4 (Reuters) – Russia’s communications watchdog has restricted access to several foreign news organisations’ websites including the BBC and Deutsche Welle for spreading what it cast as false information, amid friction about reporting on Ukraine.

Russia has repeatedly complained that Western media organisations offer a partial – and often anti-Russian – view of the world while failing to hold their own leaders to account for devastating foreign wars such as Iraq and corruption.

The watchdog said on Friday it had blocked the BBC, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Deutsche Welle and other media outlets, Interfax news agency reported.

The BBC said it would not be deterred.

“Access to accurate, independent information is a fundamental human right which should not be denied to the people of Russia, millions of whom rely on BBC News every week,” it said.

“We will continue our efforts to make BBC News available in Russia, and across the rest of the world.”

Some users in Russia could not access the BBC’s website on Friday.

Western leaders have for years raised concerns about the dominance of state media in Russia and say the freedoms won when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 have been rolled back by President Vladimir Putin.

Russia’s RIA news agency said access to the websites of BBC Russian service as well as Radio Liberty and the Meduza media outlet were being limited, citing the media watchdog’s official register.

According to an official notice received on March 3, the Russian communications watchdog said Radio Liberty’s Russian service had spread “obviously fake socially significant information about the alleged Russian attack on Ukrainian territory”.

“Such information is wrong,” Radio Liberty cited the official notice as saying.

Describing the situation in Ukraine has become a sensitive issue in Moscow.

Putin said the “special military operation” was essential to ensure Russian security after the United States enlarged the NATO military alliance to Russia’s borders and supported pro-Western leaders in Kyiv.

Photo – A photograph showing the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) headquarters in Central London, Britain. EPA-EFE/WILL OLIVER