A Moscow court on Monday revoked the license to distribute the paper edition of the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which is considered a pillar of investigative journalism in Russia, following a request from Russia’s telecommunications regulator. [Roskomnadzor].
“The Basmanny court in Moscow recognized the registration certificate as invalid [enquanto meio de comunicação] of the paper version of Novaya Gazeta,” the newspaper stated on the social network Telegram.
The newspaper was forced to suspend publication as early as March due to Moscow’s repression of criticism of the conflict in Ukraine.started last February.
Today’s announcement comes after the death and burial of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet Union leader – who died last week at age 91 – who has long been a supporter of Novaya Gazeta.
Novaya Gazeta editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov – winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize – attended Mikhail Gorbachev’s funeral service, which was held on Saturday.
In a statement, the Basmanny court confirmed the withdrawal following a complaint filed by Roskomnadzor in late July.
The telecoms regulator said that during a new administrative registration in 2006, in accordance with the rules in force, the newspaper failed to deliver “the editorial statutes”.
The UN has already responded to the court’s ruling, calling it a “new blow” to the independence of Russian media..
The decision is “another blow to the independence of the Russian media, whose activities have already been hampered by legal restrictions and heightened state controls imposed in the wake of the Russian Federation’s attack on Ukraine,” said Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the Russian Federation. the High UN. Commissioner for Human Rights in a statement.
In two other separate cases, also filed in July, Rozkomnadzor requested the withdrawal of authorizations for the portal and for a new Novaya Gazeta magazine. These complaints are to be investigated by the Russian judiciary in the course of the month.
In late March, Novaya Gazeta, which has reported critically on the conflict in Ukraine, decided to suspend its publication, both on the internet and in the paper edition, for fear of reprisals in Russia. In fact, the newspaper had been out of print for months..
The European ‘online’ edition, created after the newspaper’s suspension in Russia on March 28, has now appeared on the list of portals and websites blocked by Roskomnadzor, at the request of the Russian Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Russian authorities also accuse the media of breaking the law by failing to clearly identify organizations and individuals designated by Moscow as “foreign agents” in its articles.
Founded in 1993, Novaya Gazeta is known for its thorough journalistic investigations into the corruption of Russian elites and serious human rights violations, especially in Chechnya.
Six of its journalists have been murdered since its inception.
Source: DN
