The BBC World News has been taken off air in Russia the broadcaster has said.
For several days Russian authorities have been restricting access to foreign and independent media outlets. This has included the main BBC websites.
On Friday, its parliament approved a law making it a criminal offence punishable by up to 15 years in prison to spread “fake” or “false” news about the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.
READ MORE: Dominic Raab denies Russia sanctions are ‘declaration of war’
This has prompted the BBC to temporarily suspend the work of all its news journalists and support staff in Russia.
BBC World News presenter Victoria Derbyshire was the first to announce the channel’s suspension.
Access to BBC websites has been restricted in Russia - here’s advice on how to access BBC News https://t.co/Fel6uWWz0M pic.twitter.com/SGBdEBhX67
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) March 6, 2022
She told viewers shortly before midday on Sunday: “BBC World News, the channel you are watching if you are outside the UK right now, and which is the BBC’s global television news channel, has just been taken off air in Russia.”
A BBC spokesperson later said BBC World News had not been available in Russia since Saturday.
The spokesperson added: “We regret that our Russian audiences are being denied access to trusted and impartial news at a time when they need it most.”
Since the Russian invasion began last month, the BBC has made efforts to ensure people inside Russia and Ukraine have access to its news output.
Both its Ukrainian and Russian language services are available on the dark web through the Tor network, a privacy-focused software, and the corporation has also brought back its shortwave radio service in a bid to thwart censorship attempts.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova previously accused the BBC of playing “a determined role in undermining the Russian stability and security”.
In the UK, broadcasting watchdog Ofcom has opened 27 investigations into the “due impartiality” of programmes broadcast on the Kremlin-backed RT news channel, formerly known as Russia Today.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article