LONDON (Reuters) – Russia’s media regulator has filed a lawsuit to revoke the registration of the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper, according to documents published on a court website.
Novaya Gazeta, a stalwart of Russia’s beleaguered independent media since 1993, suspended operations inside the country in March after receiving warnings from the communications regulator and being forced to remove material from its website on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
If stripped of its registration, Novaya Gazeta journalists would lose the right to work should the paper resume operations in Russia.
Part of the paper’s staff have set up a European edition from Riga, Latvia. In April, the European edition’s site was blocked inside Russia.
Novaya Gazeta’s longtime editor in chief, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dmitry Muratov, has remained in Russia despite his vocal opposition to the conflict in Ukraine. In April, he was attacked by supporters of the war, having red paint thrown over him.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
