UN experts say Russian media law amounts to information ‘blackout’

Moscow, whose forces invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, last week blocked Facebook and other websites and passed a law that imposed a prison term of up to 15 years for spreading intentionally “fake” news about the military. read more

The move prompted the BBC, Bloomberg and other foreign media to suspend reporting in the country, although the BBC said it was resuming English-language reporting from Russia on March 8 because of the “urgent need to report from inside Russia”.

“Russia’s recent adoption of a punitive ‘fake war news’ law is an alarming move by the government to gag and blindfold an entire population,” three independent U.N. experts appointed by the top U.N. rights body, the Human Rights Council, said in a statement.

“…the law places Russia under a total information blackout on the war and in so doing gives an official seal of approval to disinformation and misinformation,” they continued.