On 31 October 2023, a court in Uglegorsk, on Russia’s Far Eastern Sakhalin Island, handed journalist Anna Bilega a two-year suspended prison sentence, on grounds of allegedly repeatedly “discrediting” the Russian army’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. According to Russian independent media outlet MediaZona, Bilega had received a first suspended two-year sentence for “discrediting” the Russian army on October 6, pronounced by a court at an unknown location.
MediaZona reported that in March 2022, Bilega posted a message in a Whatsapp group called Problemy Uglegorska (“The Problems of Uglegorsk” in Russian) with the words “I just spoke with Ukraine…”. Following this, she was fined 30 thousand rubles on grounds of “discrediting” the Russian army. The basis of the new suspended prison sentences, which were pronounced over a year later, were in all likeliness war-related comments on the Russian social media Odnoklassniki.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, reporting on the war based on sources other than the Russian government is forbidden in Russia. Media outlets which do not comply with new legislation face heavy fines, closure, and internet access blocks. Journalists who violate laws on war-related “fake news” and “discreditation” of the Russian army face fines and prison terms.