Roskomnadzor blocked news website "Podiyi Krymu"

 On January 29, on the territory of Crimea annexed by Russia, the news website “Podiyi Krymu” ("Events of Crimea") was blocked by the Federal Service For Supervision Of Communications, Information Technology, And Mass Media (Roskomnadzor). Krym.Realii learned about this from the media outlet’s editorial office. Last autumn, the Russian agency already notified the editorial office about the plans to restrict access to their website on the territory of Russia for alleged "appeals to mass disorders, extremist activities or participation in public events conducted with violation of established procedure".

At that, the Russian agency did not even wait one day that is granted by the law to websites to remove the content that the agency deems inappropriate. Also, the agency did not notify the editorial office, what materials in particular they consider improper.

“This approach shows that the Kremlin is not happy with the website’s informational policy in general, they do not even try to find legal reasons to close it down. The reason for such close attention to the portal, as we see it, is that it has the largest Crimean audience (over 300 thousand of 500 thousand users per month) among the Crimean independent mass media that are pro-Ukrainian”, the editorial office commented on the situation.