Russian lawmakers have approved a preliminary bill to limit the number of media outlets owned by foreigners to 20 percent.
The move could potentially affect dozens of news outlets across Russia, including the country’s leading business daily Vedomosti, which is part owned by the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. Under the bill, the publications would have to change ownership or close by 2017.
Leonid Bershidsky, the founding editor of Vedomosti, condemned the move, saying,
“Foreign ownership was the only thing that protected some Russian media outlets’ editorial integrity… If it’s not allowed, that last bit of protection is gone.”
The State Duma voted overwhelmingly in favour of the preliminary bill, passing it by 434 votes to 1. Vadim Dengin, the lawmaker who sponsored the bill, stated,
“The cold war, namely the information war, which is being unleashed against the Russian Federation, requires us to apply its rules.”
See more from the New York Times here and Financial Times here.