Moscow
Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia’s last independent media outlets, announced on Friday that it would cease operations due to pressure from authorities.
“Novaya Gazeta was killed,” editor-in-chief Sergei Sokolov said in a video statement. “On November 9, we will turn off the lights in the house where we have lived for 30 years. We will close our servers and leave… Russian security services have forced the editorial office to cease its activities.”
The newspaper, once edited by Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov, has long been considered a beacon of Russian investigative journalism.
Founded in the early 1990s, partly under the patronage of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Novaya Gazeta had a contentious relationship with the Kremlin but had come under immense pressure from Russian authorities amid a widespread crackdown on the country’s media following the large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Russian lawmakers criminalized the spread of “fake” news discrediting the Russian military in March 2022, forcing many journalists, including those working at Novaya Gazeta, to flee into exile. A spin-off publication, Novaya Gazeta Europe, is based in Riga, Latvia.
Sokolov told CNN that he believed the fate of Novaya Gazeta more broadly reflected the situation in Russian society, facing a repressed media landscape.
“The information space in Russia has disappeared,” Sokolov said. “People do not know and have no way of knowing what is happening on the next street, because the sources of information they have are either stories about a Russia that does not exist, or propaganda promoting the way of thinking that the ruling elite wants to impose on public opinion.”
Novaya Gazeta initially suspended publication of its online and print editions in Russia following the large-scale invasion of Ukraine, after receiving a warning from Russia’s media regulator Roskomnadzor. The move comes after Muratov participated, alongside other leading independent Russian journalists, in an interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in March 2022.
Novaya Gazeta has long been investigating corruption and wrongdoing by various Russian state bodies. Co-founder Muratov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October 2021 alongside Filipino journalist Maria Ressa for their “efforts to safeguard freedom of expression.”
In April 2022, Muratov said he was attacked with red acetone-based paint while traveling on a train from Moscow to the city of Samara. The newspaper said in a statement that he nearly lost his sight and that the perpetrators had been released.
Six journalists from the paper have been murdered during its three and a half decades of operation, including Anna Politkovskaya, a staunch critic of President Vladimir Putin who extensively covered human rights abuses in Chechnya. Politkovskaya was murdered outside her apartment in Moscow in 2006, on Putin’s birthday.
Muratov and the newspaper itself were labeled “foreign agents.” Russian authorities are increasingly using this label to question the credibility and independence of organizations and individuals bearing this label. This is a sign that the state considers them associated with foreign influence and carries practical legal implications such as heavy financial sanctions and reporting requirements.
“We continued as long as we could, but we were kicked out of our house and our donation platform which allowed us to receive financial support from our readers was closed,” Novaya Gazeta said in a statement published on Friday. “We have been stripped of all our resources. Completely.”
Authorities revoked its license and blocked access to its website in Russia. Oleg Roldugin, the newspaper’s investigative journalist, was arrested earlier this year for “illegal access to computerized information,” and editor-in-chief Sokolov was detained for questioning and his home searched in connection with the case.
In a statement to CNN, the newspaper said: “We cannot continue to work under the name “Novaya Gazeta”. “Novaya” no longer exists. A final issue will be published — and that’s it. After that, we will take a break, think and invent a new life for ourselves.
Muratov remained a public voice campaigning for the release of Russian political prisoners. In September, The Atlantic reported on his efforts to pressure American diplomacy to free imprisoned Russian dissidents. While critics say such efforts could potentially help Putin ease sanctions, the newspaper’s former editor-in-chief and his international stature have apparently been unable to protect the acclaimed newspaper from Russia’s repression machine.
Gn world
