Russian authorities have designated several journalists as foreign agents
Russia's Justice Ministry today added several journalists, including five journalists from Radio Free Europe (RFE), to the register of "foreign media agents".
Russian legislation adopted provisions on "foreign agents" in 2012 and amended them several times, requiring NGOs receiving foreign aid that the government considers to be involved in political activities to be registered and identified as "foreign agents." as well as be subject to tax control, reports Radio Free Europe.
Subsequent amendments to the law targeted foreign-funded media, including RFE / RL services in Russian, and several RFE / RL correspondents were added to the list.
RFE / RL President Jamie Fly condemned the move as another attack on free media in Russia and reaffirmed the media's commitment to the Russian public.
"Today's Kremlin targeting of five Russian nationals working for RFE / RL is just the latest attempt to silence Russia's independent media. "We will continue to fight against this absurd use of the law on 'foreign agents' to control the information that Russian citizens can access," Fly said.
The list also includes journalist Danil Sotnikov of the independent news channel TV Dozhd, BBC Russian correspondent Andrei Zakharov, Galina Arapova, director of the Center for Media Rights Protection and environmental activist Evgeny Simonov.
The Bellingket research project, MEMO, publisher of the Caucasus Knot website, and the American Mason GES Anonymous Foundation, which owns the online publication M.News, have also been added to the register.
About 85 individuals and organizations have so far been registered as "foreign agents", 68 of them since the beginning of the year.
In an open letter on September 1, the editors-in-chief of more than 20 independent Russian publications demanded the abolition of the list of media "foreign agents", proposing 12 amendments to the existing law on "foreign agents".
An open letter was sent to Russian President Vladimir Putin, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov and Justice Minister Konstantin Chuichenko, and the Kremlin promised to consider the journalists' complaint.
Source: Beta
