On 17 November 2022, Russian authorities blocked acces to the website of Novaya Gazeta, a popular independent newspaper based in Moscow. The website of Svobodnoye Prostranstvo, an online project by the newspaper, was also blocked.
Novaya Gazeta’s press service said the newspaper had not been informed about the decision or the reasons behind it. Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media watchdog and internet censor, said it had blocked the site based on earlier decisions to restrict access to pages linked to Novaya Gazeta.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the enactment of draconian fake news laws in Russia, part of Novaya Gazeta’s journalists left the country and continued to write on the war for a newly created media outlet, Novaya Gazeta Europe. The remaining journalists continued publishing for Novaya Gazeta in Russia. A court in Moscow, however, eventually stripped the newspaper of its publishing license.