RFE/RL condemns latest Kremlin threats as “political censorship” – USAGM

RFE/RL condemns latest Kremlin threats as “political censorship”

February 5, 2022

Washington, D.C. — Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) strongly condemns a sharp escalation of intimidation tactics by Russian authorities, which saw state media-monitoring agency Roskomnadzor overnight threaten to block eight RFE/RL websites serving audiences in Russia, Ukraine, and Central Asia unless they pulled down articles tied to corruption investigations by jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny’s team.

RFE/RL will not comply with these demands. Said President and CEO Jamie Fly, “RFE/RL will not allow the Kremlin to dictate our editorial decisions. This is a blatant act of political censorship by a government apparently threatened by journalists who are merely reporting the truth.”

Roskomnadzor sent more than 60 e-mail notifications giving RFE/RL 24 hours to remove content related to Navalny investigations from its two largest websites for Russian audiences – Radio Liberty and Current Time – as well as RFE/RL’s Russian-language sites for Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan, and local sites for Russia’s Siberian, Volga-Ural, and Northwestern regions.

More than a dozen Russian publications, including the Newspaper Novaya Gazeta, as well as Dozhd television channel and Ekho Moskvy radio station, have received similar notices in recent days. Several decided to comply with the demands and removed the content. The move is the latest in a series of attacks against RFE/RL and other independent media and comes as RFE/RL has been extensively covering the unprecedented Russian military buildup for its audiences in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, rebutting Kremlin disinformation and exposing malign Russian activities.

In the past year, Roskomnadzor has issued 1,040 violations against RFE/RL that will result in fines of more than $13.4 million for its refusal to submit to the unjust and invasive content labeling provisions of Russia’s “foreign agent” law. RFE/RL continues to fight these fines in Russian court and has also filed suit with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over the law. In addition, 18 RFE/RL journalists have been designated as individual “foreign agents.”

On January 26, RFE/RL’s Russian Service was fined 3 million rubles ($39,000) for the alleged “public distribution of knowingly false information about the activities of the U.S.S.R. during World War II.” In fact, the existence of the published material is backed by documents from Russian archives – and RFE/RL is being held liable for actions that are not punishable under Russian law. RFE/RL is appealing the fine, not least to help defend Russia’s shrinking space for press freedom.

In a sign that the crackdown on press freedom may yet intensify, President Putin in late January issued an order calling for the creation of a new “register of toxic content.”

About RFE/RL

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty is a private, independent international news organization whose programs — radio, Internet, television, and mobile — reach influential audiences in 23 countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus. It is funded by the U.S. Congress through USAGM.

UN Security Council Discusses Latest North Korea Missile Launch

Nine U.N. Security Council members condemned North Korea’s January 30 launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile Friday, saying it was “a significant escalation” in Pyongyang’s recent violations of council resolutions and was intended to further destabilize the region.

“We condemn this unlawful action in the strongest terms,” U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters after a 90-minute closed-door meeting of the 15-nation council. She spoke on behalf of and flanked by her council counterparts from Albania, Brazil, Britain, France, Ireland, Japan, Norway and the United Arab Emirates.

The launch, which took place on Sunday local time, was North Korea’s longest-range missile test in more than four years.

“It also marks a new and troubling record — the nine ballistic missiles launched in January is the largest number of launches the DPRK has conducted in a single month in the history of its WMD and ballistic missile programs,” Thomas-Greenfield said. DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.

North Korea is forbidden to conduct such launches under the provisions of several Security Council resolutions.

The council last met on January 20 to discuss the launch activity without a united public stance.

FILE – U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks to reporters during a news conference at U.N. headquarters in New York, March 1, 2021.

“The cost of the council’s ongoing silence is too high,” the U.S. envoy said on behalf of the group of nine council members. “It will embolden the DPRK to further defy the international community, to normalize its violations of Security Council resolutions, to further destabilize the region, and to continue to threaten international peace and security. This is an outcome that we should not accept.”

China’s U.N. ambassador told reporters on his way into Friday’s meeting that the solution “lies in dialogue” among the direct parties to the issue.

He appeared to put the responsibility on Washington to coax North Korea to the negotiating table, saying it has the key to solving the situation in its hands.

“They should come up with more attractive and more practical, more flexible approaches, policies and actions, and in accommodating the concerns of DPRK,” Ambassador Zhang Jun said of the United States. “We have all seen what happened in Singapore. We have all seen what happened in Hanoi. And we have seen suspension of the nuclear test, and we have seen suspension of the launch of ICBMs [intercontinental ballistic missiles].”

Former U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held two summits, one in Singapore in 2018 and another in Vietnam the following year. They did not lead to denuclearization, but tensions cooled between the two nations, with Kim pausing his country’s nuclear and long-range missile tests.

The Biden administration has urged Pyongyang to meet without preconditions.

“We stand ready to engage in dialogue, and we will not waver in our pursuit of regional peace and stability and the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula consistent with relevant Security Council resolutions,” Thomas-Greenfield reiterated Friday.

China’s envoy urged the parties and the council to be prudent in both their actions and their words to avoid a full escalation.

FILE – Zhang Jun, permanent representative of China to the United Nations, speaks during a meeting of the Security Council, Sept. 23, 2021, in New York.

“We have seen a vicious circle: confrontation, condemnation, sanctions, and then coming back to confrontation, condemnation and sanctions again,” Zhang said. “So what will be the end?”

He said China’s “freeze for freeze” proposal remains on the table. That would have Pyongyang freeze its nuclear activity in exchange for partial sanctions relief.

Thomas-Greenfield said that would reward North Korea for bad behavior.

Earlier this week, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned Sunday’s ICBM launch.

“This is a breaking of the DPRK’s announced moratorium in 2018 on launches of this nature and a clear violation of Security Council resolutions,” Guterres’ spokesman said.

He urged Pyongyang to cease any “further counterproductive actions” and seek a diplomatic solution.

RFE/RL condemns latest Kremlin threats as “political censorship” – USAGM

RFE/RL condemns latest Kremlin threats as “political censorship”

February 4, 2022

Washington, D.C. — Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) strongly condemns a sharp escalation of intimidation tactics by Russian authorities, which saw state media-monitoring agency Roskomnadzor overnight threaten to block eight RFE/RL websites serving audiences in Russia, Ukraine, and Central Asia unless they pulled down articles tied to corruption investigations by jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny’s team.

RFE/RL will not comply with these demands. Said President and CEO Jamie Fly, “RFE/RL will not allow the Kremlin to dictate our editorial decisions. This is a blatant act of political censorship by a government apparently threatened by journalists who are merely reporting the truth.”

Roskomnadzor sent more than 60 e-mail notifications giving RFE/RL 24 hours to remove content related to Navalny investigations from its two largest websites for Russian audiences – Radio Liberty and Current Time – as well as RFE/RL’s Russian-language sites for Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan, and local sites for Russia’s Siberian, Volga-Ural, and Northwestern regions.

More than a dozen Russian publications, including the newspaper Novaya gazeta, as well as Dozhd television channel and Ekho Moskvy radio station, have received similar notices in recent days. Several decided to comply with the demands and removed the content. The move is the latest in a series of attacks against RFE/RL and other independent media and comes as RFE/RL has been extensively covering the unprecedented Russian military buildup for its audiences in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, rebutting Kremlin disinformation and exposing malign Russian activities.

In the past year, Roskomnadzor has issued 1,040 violations against RFE/RL that will result in fines of more than $13.4 million for its refusal to submit to the unjust and invasive content labeling provisions of Russia’s “foreign agent” law. RFE/RL continues to fight these fines in Russian court and has also filed suit with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over the law. In addition, 18 RFE/RL journalists have been designated as individual “foreign agents.”

On January 26, RFE/RL’s Russian Service was fined 3 million rubles ($39,000) for the alleged “public distribution of knowingly false information about the activities of the U.S.S.R. during World War II.” In fact, the existence of the published material is backed by documents from Russian archives – and RFE/RL is being held liable for actions that are not punishable under Russian law. RFE/RL is appealing the fine, not least to help defend Russia’s shrinking space for press freedom.

In a sign that the crackdown on press freedom may yet intensify, President Putin in late January issued an order calling for the creation of a new “register of toxic content.”

About RFE/RL

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty is a private, independent international news organization whose programs — radio, Internet, television, and mobile — reach influential audiences in 23 countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus. It is funded by the U.S. Congress through USAGM.

China Flies Dozens of Warplanes Toward Taiwan in Latest Incursions

More than 50 Chinese aircraft have flown into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) in recent days, marking the sharpest escalation in military sorties since the year began.

Sunday saw a record 39 flights enter the ADIZ, followed by 13 more on Monday, the government in Taiwan said. The ADIZ is an area of land and sea tracked by Taiwan’s military, including the Taiwan Strait and eastern China.

Taipei responded to the incursions by scrambling several of its fighters to confront the Chinese warplanes, and the military tracked them on its air defense radar systems.

There was no immediate comment from Beijing on the incursion.

China typically sends between one and five each aircraft each day in the direction of Taiwan each day, according to public data shared by Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense, but numbers can fluctuate depending on tensions in the Strait of Taiwan and other political events.

Sunday’s flights by the People’s Liberation Army followed a joint freedom of navigation exercise between the US and Japan in the Philippine Sea, which included the aircraft carriers USS Carl Vinson and USS Abraham Lincoln.

“The incursions into the ADIZ in the past two days are likely related to the U.S.-Japan military exercises that took place last week. I think the Chinese are increasingly worried about U.S. military operations with allies in the region, and less worried about Taiwan’s actions,” said Bonnie Glaser, director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Daily PLA flights toward Taiwan escalated to more than 940 last year, according to the MOD, including a record 56 in a single day in October. The incident coincided with the 100th anniversary of China’s Communist Party, which has long viewed democratic Taiwan as a province that it hopes to take through peaceful or military means.

Flights into Taiwan’s ADIZ do not signify immediate military action by the PLA but are regarded as one of China’s “grey zone” tactics to reduce morale in Taiwan while sending a signal to its allies like Japan and the U.S. that it is a formidable force.

“Above all, I see the Chinese try to send a statement to Washington that they have the capability to counter all U.S. warships close to the Chinese ports,” said Su Tzu-yun, a research fellow at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research.

Su told VOA that the volume of flights by the PLA is only one area of concern for Taiwan and its allies. Just as troubling, he said, will be the rollout of China’s new and more powerful WS10 engine in its stealth fighter jets as well as its expanding nuclear arsenal and naval capability in the coming years.

The combined effect will transform the PLA from a “green water navy,” which must stay near ports or coastline, into an ocean-going “blue water navy” that can travel hundreds of nautical miles from shore – a potential threat to countries beyond Asia, he said.

“It’s not only Taiwan that is threatened by Beijing,” Su said. “Beijing’s sea power right now in 2022 is a so-called ‘green water navy,’ however, they will get more aircraft carriers. My personal view is that the PLA navy will become a ‘blue water navy’ by 2025… because its aircraft carriers will be in service and it can start expanding its air power beyond the first island chain.”

China’s growing naval and military power has brought renewed attention to Taiwan, which was once called an “unsinkable aircraft carrier” by U.S. General Douglas McArthur due to its strategic position between continental Asia and the Pacific Ocean.

It also plays a major role in the U.S. “first island chain” defense strategy, which incorporates Japan, parts of the Philippines and Malaysia, as well as Japan’s southern Ryukyu islands into a shield to keep China out of the Pacific.

The Financial Times reported on Sunday, however, that China has maintained an unprecedented military presence on the east side of the Ryukyus and Taiwan for the past six months.

“Last year more Chinese navy vessels and aircraft started operating east of Taiwan. Prior to that they were deployed primarily on the west side. As the FT noted, the PLA is operating regularly between the Nansei Islands and the east of Taiwan.” Tokyo refers to the Ryukyu chain as the Nansei islands.

A range of actors including NATO and the European Union, has expressed concern over the past year about China’s growing reach across the Indo-Pacific and its ability to control the Taiwan Strait, a globally important 177-kilometer waterway between mainland Asia and Taiwan. Concern is especially high in Japan, which relies on imports to meet 90% of its energy needs.

China has already expanded its regional footprint through island building in the South China Sea, as well as an extensive military modernization program that has upgraded the size and power of its armed forces.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press and Reuters.