According to Russian media reports, the Russian public prosecutor's office has classified the German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) as an "undesirable organization." Director General Barbara Massing discusses what this means for the broadcaster.
00:00Russia has labeled this media outlet, DW, Germany's international broadcaster, an undesirable
00:07organization, just like Radio Free Europe, Bellingcat, Reporters Without Borders, and
00:12TV Reign.
00:13In Russia, cooperating with undesirable organizations is a criminal offense, subject to heavy fines
00:19and in severe cases, imprisonment.
00:22For more, we can now speak to DW's Director General, Barbara Massing.
00:26Barbara, what exactly does that mean for both DW itself and its users?
00:33Yeah, thank you, Michael.
00:35This classification has serious consequences for DW and its staff, but actually for anyone
00:40who works with DW or even shares content from DW.
00:45In Russia, as you said, cooperating with undesirable organization is a criminal offense, subject
00:51to heavy fines and in severe cases, imprisonment.
00:54Even sharing content from such organizations, such as posting their journalistic work on
01:01social media, is considered a crime.
01:04For Russian citizens, the ban on cooperation also applies outside Russian territory.
01:10This means that Russian employees of DW are particularly affected.
01:14And this means also that they probably will never be able to get back to Russia and to see their
01:22families.
01:23So this is having a really heavy effect also on our staff.
01:27And for users, it gets even harder to access DW content and therefore free and unbiased information.
01:34But we will continue to, I just wanted to say that we will continue to do our work and we want
01:47to help users in Russia continue accessing independent information.
01:51DW is increasingly relying on digital platforms and offering tools to bypass censorship, such as the Tor
02:00browser, VPN access, the DW app.
02:04And in addition, the new DW access app offers users another secure way to circumvent censorship and stay informed.
02:11Why do you think this is happening now?
02:18Actually, this is really hard to say.
02:22Back in summer of 2024, the Duma had already called on the Russian prosecutor general's office to declare DW an undesirable organization.
02:32There may be a connection to the Russian ambassador being summoned to the German foreign office on Friday because the foreign office holds
02:41Russia responsible for cyber attacks and disinformation campaigns during the German federal election campaign.
02:47And one of the reasons for being summoned for the Russian ambassador was also that Russia was accused of interfering with aviation security in several cases.
03:04So there may be a connection to this event, but there may also be, of course, a connection to the Ukraine peace talks starting today and holding tomorrow in Berlin.
03:24And the other thing I could imagine is just our reporting, actually, because we still inform about the Russian invasion to Ukraine.
03:37We aired a big documentary recently on Russian political prisoners.
03:48So I think this can be a mixture of several things, actually.
03:55In any case, these events show that free independent information is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain in Russia and that it is becoming increasingly dangerous for people in Russia,
04:06for people in Russia to obtain information independently.
04:11How would that affect DW's reporting from Russia or about Russia?
04:16Well, it will make it even more difficult, if not entirely impossible, to engage with ordinary people and experts in Russia.
04:27It was already very dangerous for people and for journalists to contribute anything to our program.
04:34But, of course, now this is even much more dangerous because they always risk being sentenced to jail, probably.
04:43The Kremlin wants people and journalists to be scared when looking for and consuming unbiased information that we provide.
04:52So, but we will not be silenced and we will not stop our reporting or anything.
05:02We will even try to broaden it and, of course, we will go on reporting about what is going on in Russia and what is also going on with the Russian war against Ukraine.
05:17And what is going on in the peace talks, because what we do is trying to tell the truth and continue to do our job reporting fact-based, reliable information about all the things that probably also autocrats in the whole world doesn't want to be seen.
05:40DW's Director General Barbara Massing, thank you.
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