Ukraine Gate -Kiev- March 5, 2022- Germany’s major public broadcasters, ARD and ZDF, have halted broadcasts from Russia amid censorship and the risk of a prison sentence for publishing real information.
“ARD and ZDF’s announcement that they are suspending their reporting from Russia for the time being is cause for understanding, but also concern. Against the backdrop of open censorship and criminalization of independent reporting, our colleagues in Moscow have no other choice,” Christian Meyer, managing director, told RSF.
According to him, Vladimir Putin wants to ban all content that contradicts state propaganda. The fact that it is now directly targeting foreign media is a new level, but this was to be expected given the dramatic events of recent days.
The organization is concerned with the positioning of local staff in ARD, ZDF and other international media.
Reporters Without Borders expects that more and more Russian journalists will leave the country as they face harsh penalties for their independent coverage.
“We therefore appeal to the German federal government to make possible non-bureaucratic asylum procedures for media workers fleeing Russia, just as is already happening with Ukrainian journalists,” Meyer said.
In the Reporters Without Borders rating of freedom of the press, Russia ranks 150th out of 180 countries.
Earlier, the US CNN, the British BBC, the Canadian CBC, and the US news agency Bloomberg announced that they would stop broadcasting from Russia.