Roskomnadzor restricts access to independent Russian news outlet

Access to the websites of Novaya Gazeta and the editorial project Svobodnoye Prostranstvo has been restricted, Roskomnadzor's service for checking access restrictions for websites and (or) pages of websites on the Internet says.

"Restricted to the site," the access restriction column reads, TASS reported.

Earlier, a report that the websites of Novaya Gazeta and Svobodnoye Prostranstvo had partially stopped opening for users in Russia appeared on Novaya Gazeta's Telegram channel.

The Svobodnoye Prostranstvo website was launched by the editorial office of Novaya Gazeta in late August 2022. On September 15, the Russian Supreme Court upheld an administrative lawsuit filed by Roskomnadzor to terminate Novaya Gazeta's website as an electronic media outlet. In early September, the Basmanny Court of Moscow upheld Roskomnadzor's claim and declared Novaya Gazeta's media license invalid. The reason for Roskomnadzor's suit was a failure to submit the editorial board's charter within the deadline set by the media law. The district court also invalidated the media registration of the Novaya Gazeta magazine.

On March 28, the Moscow editorial board of Novaya Gazeta suspended its publication after the second written warning from Roskomnadzor. The reason for the warning was the fact that the agency had found that the newspaper's website contained material mentioning an organization that is listed in the register of non-profit organizations that perform functions of a foreign agent without proper marking. The Roskomnadzor issued its first such warning to Novaya Gazeta on March 22.

Novaya Gazeta was founded in 1993. Its editor-in-chief is Dmitriy Muratov.