Russian News Outlet Charged for Reporting on Governor's Drone Attack Message
2 sources · Latvia
Who reported this
- Meduza
- Novaya Gazeta Europe
What the colours mean
- Left
- Centre-left
- Centre
- Centre-right
- Right
- A hatched block means the outlet is affiliated with, or controlled by, a state.
Political lean describes where an outlet sits within the politics of its own country. It is never a position on a single global scale.
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The owner of each outlet is listed as a matter of record, not as a judgement about the outlet.
Every source for this story reports from Latvia.
Every outlet covering this story shares the same political lean; read with that in mind.
Authorities in the Vladimir region of Russia have filed administrative charges against the local news outlet Zebra TV for publishing information regarding a Ukrainian drone attack. The charges follow a news article that summarized or quoted a message from Governor Alexander Avdeev about a drone strike that caused a fire in a high rise building. According to the charging document, the publication violated a March 2025 decision by the region's crisis center that bans the distribution of information about drone attacks. Zebra TV now faces a fine of up to 200,000 rubles.
The charges were initiated following a report from Yekaterina Gutsalenko, the head of the mass communications department in the governor's administration. Zebra TV claims that Gutsalenko had previously advised the outlet that quoting the governor's messages did not violate the ban. The outlet further alleges that the ban is worded ambiguously and that similar charges are being filed against other private citizens and independent news organizations in the region. Reports indicate that more than 30 Russian regions had implemented bans on publishing photos and videos of drone attack aftermaths by mid May.
How each side framed it
- Centre-left
- Outlets of this lean framed the event as part of a broader pattern of state censorship and the use of vague regulations to target independent media and citizens.
Sources
- Centre-left Meduza: One Russian region’s ban on sharing information about Ukrainian drone strikes is so vague that officials just brought charges against a local news outlet for paraphrasing the governor
- Centre-left Novaya Gazeta Europe: Protocol drawn up against Vladimir publication for quoting governor's message about drone attack
100% of the statements in this article were traced back to the source articles listed above.