Vice faces censorship from media watchdog in Russia

News, arts and culture website Vice has been added to Russia’s blacklist of websites over an article that allegedly promoted shoplifting.

According to government watchdog Roskomnadzor, the Tobolsk City Court in Russia’s Tyumen region ruled that an article published on the Russian-language version of the Vice website advocated stealing goods from shops, and thereby violated the Russian Law on Information. Access to the article has been prohibited in Russia since yesterday.

Although the court ruled on this in December 2015, Roskomnadzor only added the site to its blacklist this week. The media watchdog claims that it raised its concerns to Vice prior to this course of action but that the “notice to the site’s administrators went unheeded”.

Source: The Washington Times