The Bloomberg News agency announced on Friday that it was suspending the activity of its journalists in Russia after the adoption of a law that penalizes the dissemination of "
false information about the army
" and its invasion of Ukraine.
“
It is with great regret that we have decided to temporarily suspend our information gathering work in Russia
,” said its editor John Micklethwait in an article posted on its site.
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The new law, signed by President Vladimir Putin on Friday, creates prison terms of up to 15 years in prison for spreading information aimed at '
discrediting
' military forces and also punishes any call to sanction Moscow .
It "
seems written to make every freelance journalist a criminal, by mere association, which makes it impossible to keep any semblance of journalism alive in the country
", he added.
The American news channel CNN simultaneously announced that it was suspending the broadcasting of its programs in Russia "
time to assess the situation
".
A little earlier, the British public broadcasters BBC and Canadian CBC/Radio Canada had also announced that they were suspending the work of their journalists in Russia.
Moscow also blocked Facebook on Friday and began Friday to "
restrict access
" to Twitter.
The day before, the emblematic radio station Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow) had announced its dissolution and the independent television channel Dojd the suspension of its activity, after the blocking of their sites.