REPORTS suggest that access to BBC websites has been severely restricted in Russia, shortly after the corporation revived its shortwave radio service in the hopes of providing listeners in Ukraine and Russia with access to its news reportage.
This follows claims by the Russian Foreign Ministry that the BBC was “undermining domestic political stability and security” in Russia.
According to Globalcheck, a service which monitors internet censorship throughout countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the availability of the BBC website is now at 17% of its regular levels in Russia, raising concerns that its services may have been blocked.
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The German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle has also reported that the BBC website is not functional in Russia.
The BBC reintroduced shortwave radio broadcasts – which can be found on 15735 kHz from 6pm to 8pm and on 5875 kHz from midnight to 2am, Ukraine time – following a Russian missile attack on Kyiv’s TV tower, which knocked out access to some news broadcasts.
Commenting on the move, BBC director-general Tim Davie said: “It’s often said truth is the first casualty of war.
“In a conflict where disinformation and propaganda is rife, there is a clear need for factual and independent news people can trust … millions more Russians are turning to the BBC.”
Ukrainian defence minister Oleksii Reznikov also wrote on Twitter that the Russian government was preparing to cut off communications in Ukraine and disseminate “massive fake messages that the country’s leadership has given up”.
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Commenting on the European Union’s ban on Russian state-sponsored media outlets RT and Sputnik earlier this week and Ofcom’s ongoing investigations into the “due impartiality” of RT, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharov said: "The fact that Russian journalists are still at least somehow able to work there (in Britain) is associated solely with London's fears of jeopardising the position of the BBC radio and television corporation in Russia, since it is far from being assigned the last role in undermining domestic political stability and security in our country.”
A spokesperson for Prime Minister Boris Johnson responded: “You know the PM’s spoken before about the importance of an independent press and the fact that it’s important that the BBC is editorially independent and can continue to do the excellent work that they do.”
Despite reports of problems accessing the BBC website, Roskomnadzor – Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media – does not appear to have officially listed the BBC as one of the sites banned in Russia.
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