Russian court fines Wikipedia for article about Ukraine war

A Moscow court on April 13 again fined Wikipedia for a Russian-language article it refused to remove about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the latest in a series of government moves to silence objective reporting or criticism of the war and restrict the Russian public's access to information. The court fined Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that runs the free, publicly-edited online encyclopedia, 2 million rubles for not removing a Wikipedia article titled “Russian occupation of the Zaporizhzhia region”, a reference to one of four Ukrainian provinces that Russia annexed last September. The state Tass news agency said the Wikimedia Foundation had failed to heed the demands of Russia’s state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor to remove articles containing “false information”. The crackdown has widened since his troops invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, focusing especially on information and dissent against what he calls Russia's “special military operation” in the neighbouring country. “These orders are part of an ongoing effort by the Russian government to limit the spread of reliable, well-sourced information in the country,” she added, asserting that Wikimedia would resist all attempts to “try to curb free knowledge.” A Wikipedia page on the issue notes, “Since the early 2010s, Russian Wikipedia and its editors have experienced numerous and increasing threats of nationwide blocks and country-wide enforcement of blacklisting by the Russian government, as well as several attempts to censor pages, spread propaganda, and disinform.” Tass said Roskomnadzor will label Wikimedia in search engines as a violator of Russian law, and more action against specific articles is planned.