* Russia threatens to jail those who spread ‘false news’
* Law signed by Putin appears to criminalize journalism, says BBC
* Moscow accuses Western media of anti-Russian bias
LONDON/LOS ANGELES, March 5 (Reuters) – International media have announced they are suspending operations in Russia to protect their journalists after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law on Friday imposing a sentence of up to 15 years. imprisonment for the dissemination of “false information”, against the background of the invasion launched by Moscow in Ukraine.
The BBC said on Friday that it was temporarily suspending the work of its journalists in Russia to ensure their safety, while the website of the British public broadcasting group is one of a series of international news sites banned by Moscow.
Subsequently, the public audiovisual group Radio-Canada and Bloomberg announced that they had taken similar decisions.
The American channels CNN and CBS News have announced the cessation of their broadcasting in Russia, while other groups have chosen not to communicate the identity of their journalists based in the country while they assess the situation.
While the invasion of Ukraine, launched last week, caused an international outcry, Moscow denounces an information war, which it intends to win. Facebook has been blocked in Russia and Twitter access has been restricted by order of the national regulator.
Moscow accuses Russia’s enemies, such as the United States and its Western allies, of spreading false information in order to sow discord among the Russian population.
Lawmakers in the Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, have passed amendments to the criminal code to make the “spreading of false information” punishable by fines or up to 15 years in prison if they “have serious consequences”.
This very vague wording will give the Russian authorities the power to severely crack down on any criticism of their armed forces, while the conflict in Ukraine could enter an even bloodier phase in the coming days.
A text voted on Friday also provides for fines against anyone calling for the imposition of sanctions against Russia for its offensive.
No comment was immediately obtained from the Kremlin on the decision of international media to suspend their operations in Russia.
Leaders of press groups have denounced a law that harms independent journalism and jeopardizes the safety of journalists. They stressed the need to find a balance between their obligations towards the public and the protection of their teams against possible reprisals.
“The change to the criminal code, which appears designed to make any freelance journalist a criminal purely by association, makes it impossible to continue any semblance of normal journalism in the country,” Bloomberg editor John Micklethwait wrote in a memo to reporters. group wages. “We are not going to do to our journalists”.
Tim Davie, the BBC’s chief executive, said the new law appeared to criminalize independent journalism.
“This leaves us with no option but to temporarily suspend the work of all BBC News journalists and their aides in Russia while we assess the full implications of this unwelcome development,” he said in a statement. a press release
He added that Russian-language BBC News would continue to operate outside Russia.
The Washington Post or the Reuters agency said they assessed the situation.
Western governments and digital giants have for their part banned the Russian channel RT, accused by the European Union of systemic disinformation about the invasion of Ukraine.
(Written by Kate Holton and Guy Faulconbridge, with Joseph Nasr, Dawn Chmielewski and David Ljunggren; French version Tangi Salan, Jean-Stphane Brosse and Jean Terzian)