UPDATE, 4:13 PM PT: CBS News joined ABC News and CNN in curbing their broadcasts in Russia, as news organizations assess a new law threatening prison terms for “fake news” about the war in Ukraine.
“CBS News is not currently broadcasting from Russia as we monitor the circumstances for our team on the ground given the new media laws passed today,” a network spokesperson said.
UPDATE, 2:18 PM PT: CNN and ABC News are curbing their broadcasts in Russia following passage of a censorship law.
“CNN will stop broadcasting in Russia while we continue to evaluate the situation and our next steps moving forward,” a spokesperson said.
An ABC News spokesperson said that they will not broadcast from Russia as they assess the situation.
“Because of the new censorship law passed in Russia today, some Western networks including ABC News are not broadcasting from the country tonight. We will continue to assess the situation and determine what this means for the safety of our teams on the ground.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the law on Friday that punishes those who disseminate what authorities deem “fake news” about the armed forces or military operations. That has been taken to mean even calling the invasion a “war,” as the government has insisted it is a “special operation.”
CNN has three correspondents in Russia: Nic Robertson, Jill Dougherty and Fred Pleitgen, in addition to staffers in the Moscow bureau. CNN is not pulling correspondents out of Russia, but won’t be broadcasting in the country.
ABC News’ foreign correspondent James Longman and a crew have been reporting from Moscow.
News organizations are studying the impact of the law. Earlier on Friday, the BBC said that it was suspending reporting there.
“The safety of our staff is paramount and we are not prepared to expose them to the risk of criminal prosecution simply for doing their jobs,” said Tim Davie, director general of the BBC.
Bloomberg News said that it was temporarily suspending its newsgathering there. “The change to the criminal code, which seems designed to turn any independent reporter into a criminal purely by association, makes it impossible to continue any semblance of normal journalism inside the country,” said editor in chief John Micklethwait.
The Russian prosecutor’s office also has said that providing assistance to a foreign organization or state for “their activities against the security of Russia” would be high treason. The punishment is up to 20 years in prison. That also has raised concerns for Russians who work or assist U.S. news outlets.
The new law is part of a broader crackdown on media. A Russian communications regulator announced that it was blocking Facebook, while some independent Russian outlets have shut down. There also were reports that Twitter also was blocked.
Reporters in Ukraine, meanwhile, are facing ever increasing dangers with the Russian advance. A Sky News crew published their experience earlier this week in which they came under fire by Russian forces in Kyiv. Chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay was hit in the lower back.
“The five of us were alive. We couldn’t believe it,” Ramsay wrote of he and his crew. “We were in shock, no doubt about it. But elated to be alive.”
PREVIOUSLY: Russia’s communications regulator Roskomnadzor said that it is blocking access to Facebook, as concerns are growing over a wider crackdown on media and the passage of new restrictions on reporting about the invasion of Ukraine.
Russian officials cited Facebook’s decision to restrict access to state-run Zvezda TV channel, the RIA Novosti news agency, Sputnik, Russia Today and Lenta.ru. Facebook’s Nick Clegg responded in a statement that “soon millions of ordinary Russians will find themselves cut off from reliable information, deprived of their everyday ways of connecting with family and friends and silenced from speaking out.”
Meanwhile, U.S. networks and other news outlets are assessing the situation in Russia for their correspondents, particularly after BBC News’ announcement that it was suspending the work of all of its journalists there following the passage of a law that could lead to up to 15 years imprisonment for the publication of “fake news” concerning its armed forces.
A Washington Post spokeswoman said, “We are assessing the details of the Russian law and its potential impact on our reporting. We intend to exercise caution while seeking clarity about how these reported restrictions would affect Washington Post correspondents and local staff.”
James Longman, ABC News’ foreign correspondent who has been in Moscow, reported on the media crackdown, calling it a “very serious situation,” adding that the government had banned the use of “war” and “invasion” to describe what Vladimir Putin’s regime calls a “special operation.”
“Now journalists in this country face the prospect of a much wider ranging law which could land them lengthy jail sentences,” he said. He said earlier this week that they were not sure what it meant for foreign news reporting, but he has said that Russian security services have made visits to their standup reporting positions. He said that a law that “outlaws help for foreign groups, makes it treason essentially, it’s worrying for us, it’s more worrying for our Russian colleagues here for ABC who work here in Moscow. It is terrifying for them to see Russia change in that way.”
The Russian prosecutor’s office said that providing assistance to a foreign organization or state for “their activities against the security of Russia” would be high treason. The punishment is up to 20 years in prison.
Russian independent media outlets have disappeared. The Committee to Protect Journalists noted that Znak and TV 2 have closed due to the restrictions. Gulnoza Said, Europe and Asia program coordinator for CPF, said that Russian authorities “have moved quickly to establish total censorship and control over the free flow of information” since the invasion. “The Russian public cannot be deprived of information and news and be forced to rely on the Kremlin-approved interpretation of events at this very important time in Russian history,” Said said. “The censorship must stop, and bans must be lifted.”