11:43, 8 May 2020

"Novaya Gazeta" allowed returning part of article on coronavirus in Chechnya back to website

The "Roskomnadzor" has specified to which sections of the article by Elena Milashina in the "Novaya Gazeta" newspaper on the situation with the coronavirus in Chechnya access should be restricted, thus, giving the right to open most of the material for readers.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported the "Roskomnadzor" had forced the "Novaya Gazeta" to restrict access to the above article on coronavirus, referring to the law on fake news.

Elena Milashina wrote in the article that doctors in Chechnya face deficit of protective means, while local authorities are engaged in mass detentions for violating the self-isolation regime.

According to Dmitry Muratov, the editor-in-chief of the above newspaper, his edition intends to challenge the ban on publishing part of the material after the quarantine ends.

The article by Milashina angered the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, who accused the "Novaya Gazeta" of "anti-Chechen harassment" and expressed threats against the author and her colleagues.

The prosecutor's office demanded to restrict access to information on the "Novaya Gazeta" website, because a fragment of Milashina's article "could cause destabilization of the work of state structures, the society, etc., that is, the point is in panic of the population," Galina Arapova, Director of the Media Rights Protection Centre, has explained.

Meanwhile Milashina became a laureate of the Deutsche Welle Freedom of Speech Award, which this year was awarded for covering the crisis caused by coronavirus.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 7, 2020 at 10:50 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Author: Rustam Djalilov

Source: CK correspondent