MOSCOW (REUTERS, AFP) - Russia's communications regulator accused 10 local media outlets on Saturday (Feb 26) of falsely depicting what Russia calls a special military operation in Ukraine and distributing false information about events there.
Among those sent warning letters were Echo Moskvy, a popular radio station, and Novaya Gazeta, a newspaper critical of the government whose editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov was awarded a Nobel Peace prize last year.
Roskomnadzor, the regulator, ordered the media to remove reports describing Moscow’s attack on Ukraine as an "assault, invasion, or declaration of war".
Citing a request from the General Prosecutor’s Office, the regulator said the media outlets will be blocked unless they remove the "unreliable information".
"Roskomnadzor also launched an administrative investigation into the dissemination of unreliable publicly significant information by the above-mentioned media," the watchdog said.
The offence is punishable by a fine of up to five million rubles (S$80,700), it said.
Roskomnadzor also said that "reliable information" could be found in "official Russian information outlets."
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine last week, saying it needed to demilitarise its neighbour.
Moscow has not so far provided any details of Russian losses in the fighting in the face of statements from Kyiv that they have inflicted heavy casualties on Moscow’s forces.
