Russian authorities on Sunday declared German news channel Deutsche Welle (DW) an “undesirable organization” and accused it of spreading “hostile propaganda” towards Moscow.
The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office made this decision at the request of the Duma (Russian Parliament) to consider the medium a “pioneer of hostile anti-Russian propaganda,” according to deputy Vasily Piskariov of the ruling United Russia party, who pointed out that cooperation with DW would be punished as a violation of the law.
The prosecutor’s office has not yet taken up the words of this deputy, who chairs the Duma commission to investigate interference by other states in Russia’s internal affairs, and the broadcaster in question has not received any notification from the organization.
However, DW’s general director, Barbara Massing, criticized the announcement on the grounds that it worsens the media situation in the country, as the German broadcaster’s Russian employees face fines or even prison sentences in the future.
In a statement, he also criticized the Russian judiciary’s tightening measures against the media and assured that he would not be intimidated by the “attempt to silence free media.”
“Despite the censorship and blocking of our services by the Russian government, DW today reaches more people with its Russian-language offering than before. We will continue to report independently on the war of aggression against Ukraine and other topics about which there is little information in Russia. So that people can form their own opinions,” he explained.
Since February 2022, when the large-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces began, there has been a broadcasting ban and the DW website has been blocked; since March of the same year, the German broadcaster has been considered a “foreign agent” by Moscow.
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