RFE/RL denounces Russia’s escalating efforts to force RFE/RL out of the country

8 April 2021

RFE/RL denounces Russia’s escalating efforts to force RFE/RL out of the country

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) President Jamie Fly today denounced Russia’s escalating efforts to force RFE/RL – including its Russian Service and 24/7 digital network Current Time – out of the country.

Fly stated that “RFE/RL is being targeted by the Russian authorities because we continue to provide a growing audience in Russia with objective news and information at a moment when the Kremlin is trying to limit access to information. We will continue to fight these attacks on our ability to operate in Russia through all possible means. We believe that the Russian people want more choices.”

Fly made his comments as RFE/RL learned that Russia’s media regulator, Roskomnadzor, would be serving RFE/RL with a new round of 130 charges beginning on April 16 – bringing the total number of violations charged by Roskomnadzor to 520, and the anticipated total amount of fines assessed to $2.3 million.

Over the past five years, RFE/RL has nearly doubled its audience in Russia to a current weekly reach of at least 6.5% of Russian adults, or nearly 6.7 million people. Between October 2019 and September 2020, Current Time-produced videos were viewed more than 1.5 billion times on social media platforms, and the number of subscribers to Current Time’s social media pages more than doubled to over 5 million; online audiences for RFE/RL’s Russian Service also grew dramatically, with 250 million video views on all media platforms in 2020.

Roskomnadzor has already served RFE/RL with 390 violation charges in the past three months, resulting in anticipated fines of $1.4 million, for violating invasive self-labeling rules that would require that RFE/RL label every piece of text, video, audio, or social media content with a prominent, lengthy, state-mandated disclaimer. Video content is obligated to carry a 15-second disclaimer at the start of each clip, and disclaimers published with text articles and social media posts must be published in a font size twice that of the text. RFE/RL has not complied with these labeling rules, which it says violate the Russian Constitution and Russia’s media law and would detract audiences looking for alternatives to Russian state media.

Russian regulators have singled out RFE/RL, whose editorial independence is also enshrined in U.S. law, over other foreign news operations in Russia. In 2017, Russian regulators put RFE/RL’s Russian Service onto a list of news media deemed to receive foreign funding for political activity as “foreign agents,” along with RFE/RL’s regional Russian-language news services and Current Time, the network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with Voice of America. The law also puts RFE/RL journalists at risk for criminal prosecution. With nearly 270 freelancers and more than 50 local contractors, RFE/RL has one of the largest networks of independent journalists in Russia and has maintained a bureau in Moscow since 1991, when it was invited into the country by Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

On April 6, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his “concern over Russia’s efforts to close Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and silence this valued source of independent reporting” via Twitter following a meeting with U.S. Agency for Global Media Acting CEO Kelu Chao. State Department spokesman Ned Price had previously said the U.S. is “deeply concerned” about the Russian government’s actions against RFE/RL, which have also been criticized by the European Union, senior members of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, The Washington Post, and media freedom groups including the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters without Borders.

About RFE/RL
RFE/RL relies on its networks of local reporters to provide accurate news and information to more than 41 million people in 27 languages and 23 countries where media freedom is restricted, or where a professional press has not fully developed. Its videos were viewed 6.5 billion times on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram/IGTV in FY2020. RFE/RL is an editorially independent media company funded by a grant from the U.S. Congress through the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

[Source: RFE/RL press release]

USAGM condemneds Russian court’s decision to fine RFE/RL

4 March 2021

USAGM condemneds Russian court’s decision to fine RFE/RL

The U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) today condemned a Russian court’s decision to levy steep fines against Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

“USAGM is very disappointed with the court’s decision, which can only be interpreted as an assault on media freedom and the free flow of information to Russia’s citizens. I have every confidence in RFE/RL as they continue to provide audiences in Russia with access to truthful, impactful reporting,” said USAGM Acting Chief Executive Officer Kelu Chao.

Russia’s revised “foreign agent” law requires designated news organizations in Russia that receive foreign funding to prominently label all content, including social media, as foreign agent-produced. Most of the organizations so designated by the Russian Ministry of Justice are USAGM public service media outlets, predominantly associated with RFE/RL. The law, originally passed in 2012 and amended in 2020 to include individual journalists, also imposes regular financial reporting requirements on these outlets. Given that USAGM’s legislatively mandated firewall prohibits its networks from accepting editorial direction from the U.S. government, RFE/RL has refused to label its content in such a wholly inaccurate manner.

In filing more than 250 violations of “foreign agent” regulations, the Kremlin has specifically targeted nine of RFE/RL’s reporting projects: Radio Liberty, its main service for Russia; the Current Time TV and digital network serving a global Russian-speaking audience; the regional reporting projects North.Realities, Siberia.Realities, Caucasus.Realities, Idel.Realities, and Crimea.Realities; the Tatar-Bashkir Service; and the fact-checking website Factograph.info. Additionally, in late December, the Kremlin named three RFE/RL freelance reporters as individual “foreign agent” journalists.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said Russia should repeal the foreign agent law and “ensure that the country’s regulator is not used to censure journalists and harass and threaten media organizations.” Amnesty International said Russia’s foreign agent law “further erodes freedom of expression and association” in that country.

[Source: USAGM press release; Image: P Photo/Pavel Golovkin/Associated Press/Alamy Stock Photo]

Radio Liberty fined in Russia – again

8 February 2021

Radio Liberty fined in Russia – again

Russian courts have fined Radio Liberty – the Russian-language service of Prague-based RFE/RL – twice in two weeks over the organisation’s alleged failure to ensure that its output is marked as being produced by a “foreign agent”.

In late January, a court in Moscow fined RFE/RL and its head in Russia a total of 1.1m roubles (around $14,500). Then at the beginning of February, RFE/RL was fined a further 2m roubles ($26,500). Andrei Shary, RFE/RL’s head in Russia, was fined 200,000 roubles in the February ruling.

Fines were also levied against websites Krym.Realii and Factograph that carried the RFE/RL output, according to Interfax News Agency, reported by BBC Monitoring.

In a statement issued on 5 February, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty announced that it has appealed what it says is: “a string of Russian court decisions to fine several of the broadcaster’s Russian-language endeavours and the general director of its operations in Russia for allegedly failing to comply with new restrictions under the country’s controversial “foreign-agent” law.

“RFE/RL’s lawyers on February 5 filed the appeals against the decisions by the Tverskoi District Court in Moscow to approve several administrative protocols submitted by Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor “for noncompliance by the media performing the functions of a foreign agent with the requirements of the law on labeling information disseminated by them.”

RFE/RL’s lawyers stated in their appeals that Roskomnadzor’s moves prevent journalists from performing professional activities and contradict the Russian Constitution and laws on media by restricting competition.

The appeals also say that censorship is officially banned in Russia, stressing that Roskomnadzor’s orders will “distort the essence of reports [and] change the way they are received by the audience.”

According to the lawyers, following Roskomnadzor’s requests would create distrust and rejection of the reports and materials of RFE/RL’s projects, while many of the requests cannot even be technically executed.

“These fines represent nothing less than a state-sponsored campaign of coercion and intimidation, targeting a media company whose editorial independence is protected by law,” RFE/RL’s Regional Director for Europe and TV Production Kiryl Sukhotski said.

“Our audiences in Russia have long depended on RFE/RL to be trustworthy, credible, and factual; to be an alternative to disinformation and spin. These qualities are, and will always remain, at the core of RFE/RL’s reporting,” Sukhotski said.

Russian regulators have singled out RFE/RL, whose editorial independence is also enshrined in U.S. law, over other foreign news operations in Russia.

DW rejects Russian accusations of interference

27 September 2019

A Russian parliamentary committee will urge Russia’s government to revoke DW’s licence for working in the country, claiming that the German broadcaster violated local laws. DW has rejected the accusations.

Russia’s media watchdog, prosecutors, and Justice and Foreign ministries will be asked to consider blacklisting German foreign broadcaster DW in Russia, Russian media reported on Friday. The move comes after the parliamentary commission in charge of investigating potential foreign influence in Russian politics claimed DW had violated domestic media laws.

In response, DW’s Broadcasting Council said that the company’s reporting was “in no way objectionable.” “The Broadcasting Council therefore rejects the accusation that DW interfered in the internal affairs of the Russian Federation,” DW said in a statement.

Broadcasting Council Chairman Karl Jüsten said DW staff should be able to work “unhindered” in Russia. “We expect the Russian authorities to ensure that all DW correspondents in Russia can report freely and without restriction,” he said.

Germany’s Foreign Ministry also pledged to support the broadcaster if necessary. “We know that DW is under pressure in Russia,” they said.

Russia blacklisted US state news outlets Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as foreign agents in 2017.

(Source: DW press release)

Russian station TV2 to lose broadcast license

4 February 2015

TV-2, one of Russia’s first independent commercial stations, will lose its broadcasting license on 8 February, only five weeks after its terrestrial signal was cut off by the local Tomsk monopoly responsible for broadcasting transmissions. The move will silence one of the last remaining independent broadcasters in the country just months before its 25th anniversary.

Local authorities have refused to review their decision despite a demonstration of more than 4,000 people showing their support for the broadcaster on 1 February.

On November 30, TV-2 was notified by the Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network (RTRS), a local division of the state monopoly that owns broadcasting facilities, that it would not be renewing TV-2’s contract when it ended in December. RTRS turned off the station’s signal on 1 January 2015, leaving the company with only cable distribution.

This is not the first time that TV-2 has been involved in a conflict with RTRS. In 2014, TV-2 was not able to broadcast its signal because of repair works at RTRS’ facilities that lasted an unexpectedly long time.

“About a month after we had been switched off the air, because of the long repairs, we started to actively speak out in the press. There were rallies in support of us. Maybe, RTRS perceived that as political pressure and got offended,” Viktor Muchnik, TV-2 Editor-in-Chief told the BBC Russian Service.

Muchnik believes that politics is behind the threatened switch-off. “We can presume that some people do not like some of our reports. For example, the governor [of the Tomsk region]. But I cannot bluntly say that he is in charge of the termination of our broadcasts. I have no proof. I know that the local government often discusses our reports. And many of the reports on everyday issues are considered political. I cannot say who exactly is annoyed with our reports but certain law enforcement agencies send letters about us to the top,” Muchnik said in an interview with the BBC Russian service.

TV and Radio company TV-2 was founded in November 1990 and its first broadcast was on May 15, 1991. The company is the major asset of the Tomsk Media Group holding company which also runs cable channels, an advertising agency and a number of radio stations. Four of the TV-2 team are members of the Russian TV Academy. The company has a reputation for providing accurate and independent news reporting on important political and social issues. It has been awarded 22 TEFI awards by the Russian TV Academy.

RTRS is the Russian-government owned corporation, providing terrestrial air transmission of TV and Radio channels over the whole of the Russian Federation. RTRS was created in August 2001 by decree of Russian president Putin.