A court in Moscow brought 20 charges against news outlet Radio Svoboda, the Russian language service of the U.S Congress-funded media outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio liberty, each entailing a fine of one million rubles. The charges were in response to the failure of the outlet to delete banned materials on the war in Ukraine, classified as “fake” by the authorities. The measures were taken under the article on non-deletion of prohibited information (part 2 of article 13.41 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). The ruling was made by judicial precinct No. 423 of the World Court of the Tverskoy District of Moscow. Since April 28, the news outlet has been charged a total of 75.8 million rubles linked to its public interest reporting on the war in Ukraine.
Russia-Ukraine WarCensorship and regulationPublication ban, take-down order or forced deletion, fine, administrative action