Russia Is Cracking Down on ‘In Memoriam’ Sections of Regional Sites Honoring the Fallen

Editor’s note: I recall when Bush barred the media from filming the unloading of flag-draped coffins as they arrived from Iraq to the US. Anything to make the Americans forget about the war ant its cost as much as possible. (Bush claimed it was to protect the families but if anything the families wanted more awareness of the sacrifice the troops were bearing.)

Well, Putin’s system has done one better and prohibited the Russian media from maintaining “In Memoriam” sections at the penalty of deletion. Let’s say you’re a regional news site for Pskov keeping an “In Memoriam” page for all from Pskov who died in Ukraine — you now can’t do that.

The legal “justification” for this must be quite “interesting” seeing a war hasn’t been declared.

Source: 74.ru

Machine translated from Russian.

The editors of the site 74.RU [news site for the Chelyabinsk region] are forced to remove the page in memory of the servicemen who died during the special operation in Ukraine. This decision was made in connection with the position of the court in relation to similar material on the Pskov website 60.RU. [News site for the Pskov region named for the Pskov license plate code.]

The Svetlogorsk city court of the Kaliningrad region considered the claim of the military prosecutor of the 73rd military prosecutor’s office of the Baltic Fleet garrison, who demanded that the list of military dead in Ukraine, posted on 60.RU, be recognized as information prohibited for distribution in the Russian Federation. The representative of Roskomnadzor supported the opinion of the prosecutor’s office.

The 60.RU website, like 74.RU, is part of the largest urban online media network in Russia – Shkulev Media Holding Urban Portals. The holding includes 45 sites.

The court, after hearing the parties, came to the conclusion that the list of military dead in Ukraine is information “revealing the loss of personnel in wartime, in peacetime during the period of special operations.” The court also pointed out that these data are classified as state secrets, the disclosure of which may result in criminal liability. The list of the dead on 60.RU is recognized as information prohibited for distribution on the territory of the Russian Federation. The entire Internet site can now be entered in the “Unified Register of Domain Names <…> containing information, the distribution of which is prohibited in the Russian Federation.” [They’re saying if they did not delete the section their entire site would have been taken down.]

In connection with such law enforcement, for the safety of editorial journalists, we are closing the memory page on 74.RU. This is a forced measure for us. We apologize to the mothers and fathers, wives and children, relatives and friends of the servicemen who died during the military special operation in Ukraine. [They’re apologizing to relatives for closing down the memorial section.]

Dear readers, for the same reasons, we close comments on materials related to the topic of the special operation in Ukraine and its consequences. We hope it’s all temporary. Thanks for understanding!

Editor’s note 2: Will it really help “the enemy” to know how many guys from Pskov are not coming back, or is this actually to hide the extent of losses from the public at home?

Russian forumites weigh in:

The supporters:

Take a look for yourself (I only glanced at the first 2 pages): LINK

The “coping with Russian humor” brigade: