Russia’s Supreme Court on Thursday revoked the online media license of independent news outlet Novaya Gazeta, the publication said in a statement.
Novaya Gazeta, which is one of Russia’s leading independent media outlets and is headed by Nobel Prize-winning journalist Dmitry Muratov, suspended its reporting in March after receiving two warnings from Russia’s state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor.
The government agency accused the publication of failing to comply with the country’s “foreign agents” law and later initiated the lawsuit against it.
The newspaper allegedly failed to correctly identify entities designated as foreign agents in several of its articles, Roskomnadzor claimed.
Novaya Gazeta deemed the allegations unlawful, noting that at least one of the organizations in question was legally removed from the government's “foreign agent” database. The publication disputed the allegations in court in spring but the counterclaim was never reviewed, according to its statement.
The print version of the publication was also stripped of its license earlier this month.
“We have the right to appeal this decision, we will certainly use it,” the newspaper said in a statement published shortly after the verdict.
