Media freedom in Russia
The current government of Russia maintains laws and practices that make it difficult for directors of mass-media outlets to carry out independent policies. These laws and practices also hinder the ability of journalists to access sources of information and to work without outside pressure. Media inside Russia includes television and radio channels, periodicals, and Internet media, which according to the laws of the Russian Federation may be either state or private property.
As of 2023, Russia ranked 164 out of 180 countries in the Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders.[2] Despite the constitution's provision of freedom of speech, the authorities possess significant discretion to suppress any speech, organization, or activity lacking official support due to ambiguous extremism laws. The government dominates the media landscape by controlling the majority of the national television networks, radio and print outlets, and media advertising market, either directly or through state-owned enterprises and friendly business magnates.[3]
Multiple international organizations have criticized and continue to criticize various aspects of the contemporary press-freedom situation in Russia.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] The Russian government engages in internet censorship.[12]
Russia was found to engage in selective Internet filtering in the political and social areas; no evidence of filtering was found in the conflict/security and Internet tools areas by the OpenNet Initiative in December 2010.[82] Russia was on the Reporters Without Borders list of countries under surveillance from 2010 to 2013[83] and was moved to the Internet Enemies list in 2014.[84] On 31 March 2013, The New York Times reported that Russia was beginning 'Selectively Blocking [the] Internet'.[85]
Social media platforms came under increased pressure in 2014. In April the founder of Vkontakte, Pavel Durov, announced he'd resign and leave the country due to FSB intimidation, after he refused to hand over the account data of Ukrainian activists. In September 2014 Vkontakte was taken over by mail.ru, owned by Kremlin-friendly businessman Alisher Usmanov.[30]
Prosecutors in Russia have the custom of charging individuals – including journalists, bloggers, and whistle-blowers – with trumped-up criminal offenses including defamation, extremism, and other common criminal charges, as part of an effort to deter and limit their activities.[30]
Judicial harassment of the blogger and politician Aleksey Navalny continued in 2014. Navalny was fined $8,400 in April for defaming a Moscow city councillor on Twitter. In December he was sentenced to three and a half years (with suspended sentence) together with his brother Oleg Navalny upon fraud charges. Roskomnadzor warned four media that reported on the sentence and relied a video of Navalny calling for demonstration, accusing them of inciting extremism.[30] On August 20, 2020, Navalny was poisoned and nearly died. The Russian government refused to open any investigation into the poisoning, which is suspected by many to have been carried out by government agents as retaliation for Navalny's investigations of political corruption and his activities in the Russian opposition movement.[113]
Many Russian media outlets were forced to stop covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine because of new Russia's laws on “fake news”. Leading speakers of several YouTube video blogs with large audiences have also become defendants in the "law on fakes". In particular, criminal cases were initiated against Maxim Katz of channel "Maxim Katz" and Anastasia Bryukhanova of channel "Objective".[114][115]
