Russia must stop its practice of designating media companies as ‘undesirable’, the International Press Institute (IPI) said.
IPI made the call following Russia’s latest such designation, which targeted independent television broadcaster TV Rain. The broadcaster was forced to leave Russia last year and now operates out of the EU. The designation has previously been used against other media outlets in Russia and abroad.
The “undesirable” designation carries even more serious consequences than the status of “foreign agent”. Collaborating with the outlet can now entail criminal liability, including up to 10 years in prison, while sharing or liking their work on social media could be considered an administrative or criminal offence.
In its decision, the Russian prosecutor-general’s office claimed that TV Rain “discredited” the Russian government and “disseminated false information” about Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In practice, “discreditation” of the Russian army and “disseminating false information” refer to critical reports on Russia’s involvement in bombing residential buildings, or other attacks leading to civilian casualties in Ukraine, such as critical information on the siege of Mariupol and massacres in Bucha. Russians who publicize these facts can be accused of “disseminating false information” and face up to fifteen years in prison.
“By continuing to designate media companies as ‘undesirable’, Russian authorities have yet again shown their complete disregard for fundamental principles of media freedom”, said IPI Deputy Director Scott Griffen. “This law is designed to isolate Russians as much as possible from news outlets whose reporting does not fit the Kremlin’s narrative. Threatening media workers with imprisonment and threatening readers with criminal liability simply for liking and sharing news content goes against the most fundamental principles of free speech as defined in international treaties and laws and displays a complete lack of commitment to human rights on the side of the Russian authorities.”
“We have been designated as ‘undesirable’ in Russia, but this is not the case, and 13 million viewers in Russia confirmed this just last month”, TV Rain’s Editor-in-Chief Tikhon Dzyadko said. He added that viewers living in Russia should refrain from sharing links to TV Rain’s publications, as “this is now unsafe”, Dzyadko wrote on Facebook.
Russia adopted its internationally criticized law on “undesirable” organizations in 2015. Since then, several dozen groups have received the status, including donor and non-governmental organizations, such as the National Endowment for Democracy or the Open Society Foundations. In July 2022, investigative outlets Bellingcat and The Insider received the designation. As of July 2023, several independent Russian media outlets have also been labelled as “undesirable”: Meduza, Novaya Gazeta Europe, Proekt, iStories (known in Russian as “Vazhnye Istorii”), as well as the global investigative reporting network OCCRP.
