The Russian authorities on Thursday blocked access to the website of the independent newspaper ‘Novaya Gazeta’, which in recent months had already been forced to reduce its reporting due to the pressure measures taken in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.
The newspaper reported on its website that the Russian media regulatory body (Roskomnadzor) has been restricting access within the country since early this morning.
In March, the newspaper had already stopped publishing both in print and on the Internet due to the intensification of censorship, which resulted in the transfer of part of the workers to EU territory and the opening of an alternative website. The authorities took a new step in September, revoking the license that allowed ‘Novaya Gazeta’ to operate as a media outlet.
The newspaper, before its closure, already maintained a limited coverage of the war in Ukraine, after publicly recognizing that it had to avoid certain contents in order not to take any risk following the tightening of censorship promoted by the Kremlin.
Its founder, Denis Muratov, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021, announced that he would donate the medal he received in Oslo to help Ukrainian refugees, in a symbolic gesture intended to focus on the millions of people displaced by the military offensive launched by Russia.
