Press oppression continues as Russia blacklists BBC, Guardian and Telegraph journalists

The Russian government has added a significant number of journalists and media executives to its list of people banned from entering the country.

These include:

From the BBC:

• Chief executive Deborah Turness
• Analysis editor Ros Atkins
• Disinformation correspondent Marianna Spring
• Two journalists working in the corporation’s new “BBC Verify” effort

From The Guardian:

• World affairs editor Julian Borger
• Chief reporter Daniel Boffey
• Columnist Emily Bell
• GNM’s chairperson and its chief financial and operating officer

From The Telegraph:

• Colin Freeman, Francis Dearnley and David Knowles, all of whom work on the publisher’s “Ukraine: the Latest” podcast

The Press Gazette reports:

“The Russian foreign ministry said it was responding to ‘the aggressive anti-Russia policy pursued by London’ and that ‘work on expanding Russia’s blacklist in response to Britain’s actions is ongoing.’ The foreign ministry referred to the newly-banned group of journalists as ‘Russophobia-charged officials and correspondents’ publishing ‘propaganda support for the Zelensky regime.’ The Russian government said the journalists added were ‘implicated in fabricating fraudulent anti-Russia stories to be promoted in the media and in spreading false information about our country as they are trying to prevent and cut short attempts at impartial coverage of the developments in Ukraine and to exclude signs of dissent by using methods described by George Orwell in his novels 1984 and Animal Farm.’”

Editor’s note: Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev could not be reached for comment, and Animal Farm is a beast fable about Soviet totalitarianism.