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Netizen Report: Russia Shutters Independent News Sites
The Netizen Report originally appears each week on Global Voices Advocacy. Ellery Roberts Biddle, Lisa Ferguson, Weiping Li, Hae-in Lim, Bojan Perkov, and Sarah Myers contributed to this report.Global Voices Advocacy's Netizen Report offers an international snapshot of challenges, victories, and emerging trends in Internet rights around the world. This week's report begins in Russia, where pressure on independent news sites spiked last week amid rapidly rising tensions surrounding Crimea.
Under an order from the attorney general, three opposition news portals—Kasparov.ru, Grani.ru, and EJ.ru—were blocked on accusations that they called for “illegal activity and participation in mass events that are conducted contrary to the established order.” Also blocked was the immensely popular website of blogger and opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who is currently under house arrest in relation to embezzlement charges. In addition, the editor of the leading news website Lenta.ru was fired from her job following pressure from the Kremlin. According to a letter (link in Russian) posted on the site by Lenta.ru employees, her dismissal violates Russian media laws. Russian journalist Alexander Erenko was also fired from his job after reposting a critical Facebook comment calling on Putin to "occupy" Russia's Vologodsk Region, where public infrastructure is in disrepair and many are without access to health care.
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http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/03/19/netizen_report_russia_shutters_independent_news_sites.html?