Websites of Novaya Gazeta, Free Space project blocked as 'mirrors' of Novaya Rasskaz-Gazeta - Roskomnadzor

MOSCOW. Nov 17 (Interfax) - Russia's telecoms watchdog Roskomnadzor has blocked the websites of Novaya Gazeta and its editorial board's online project Free Space as "mirrors" of Novaya Rasskaz-Gazeta, which was blocked permanently, the agency told Interfax.

"The sites novaya.media and novayagazeta.ru were recognized as mirrors of Novaya Gazeta's site novaya.no, which was earlier blocked on a permanent basis. Access to the mirrors of the earlier blocked sites is subject to restriction under the Russian government's Decree 1995 of November 5, 2022," Roskomnadzor said on Thursday, responding to the agency's inquiry.

"The decision to block such sites is made by Roskomnadzor," the agency said.

Roskomnadzor's universal service to check the blocking of webpages and websites released information on the restriction of user access to Novaya Gazeta's site novayagazeta.ru and novaya.media, Novaya Gazeta editorial board's project Free Space, in the late hours of Wednesday. At the same time, the service did not state on what grounds and by whose decision these sites were blocked on the territory of Russia. Novaya Gazeta also said on Telegram the sites became inaccessible to users in Russia in the early hours of Thursday.

Novaya Gazeta's Press Secretary Nadezhda Prusenkova told Interfax the editorial board has not received any complaints from the supervisory agency that could have become grounds for inclusion of these sites in the register and their inclusion in the register will be appealed in court. "We will definitely appeal these decisions in court. The dates of the hearings of the appeal against the decision to deprive the site of registration as a media outlet and our appeals against written warnings issued by Roskomnadzor, which we are also appealing, have not been scheduled yet. Our lawyers have already filed a complaint about lack of action and red tape, but the Moscow City Court has not scheduled a hearing for that either," Prusenkova said.