Russia set to block ‘foreign agent’ journalists’ income

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with journalist Pavel Zarubin after his annual televised year-end press conference and phone-in held in Moscow, Russia, December 19, 2024.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks after his annual year-end press conference in Moscow in December 2024. (Photo: Sputnik/Alexander Kazakov/Pool via Reuters)

After a year that saw Russia increase its pressure on independent media and journalists, authorities are seeking to tighten the squeeze on dissenting voices from March 1 by blocking those designated as “foreign agents” from access to their earnings.

So-called foreign agents will not be allowed to withdraw their earnings unless they are removed from the register. However, the government can withdraw money from agents’ accounts to pay fines imposed for failing to apply that label to their published material or to report on their activities and expenses to the government — a legal requirement since 2020.

While the new law’s full impact remains to be seen, it looms as yet another threat for exiled media outlets already rattled by the prospect of losing funding after U.S. President Donald Trump’s freezing of foreign aid.

“It is clear that the legal pressure on journalists who stay in Russia — and those who have relocated — will increase,” Mikhail Danilovich, director of The New Tab, an exiled online magazine founded in May 2022, which has been blocked inside Russia due to its coverage of the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, told CPJ.

-Explore Russia’s repression record

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China, Israel, Myanmar top jailers of journalists

A police officer (left) stands at the entrance of a prison in western China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in April 2021. Blindfolded Palestinian prisoners captured in Gaza are seen at a military detention facility in southern Israel in winter 2023 (center), and a view outside of Insein prison in Yangon, Myanmar, as relatives wait for the release of prisoners on January 4, 2024. (Photos, from left: AP/Mark Schiefelbein; Breaking the Silence via AP; AFP)
A prison entrance in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in 2021 (left); Palestinian prisoners at a military detention facility in Israel in 2023 (center); and a view of Insein prison in Yangon, Myanmar, in 2024. (Photos, from left: AP/Mark Schiefelbein; Breaking the Silence via AP; AFP)

China, Israel, and Myanmar emerged as the world’s three worst offenders in another record-setting year for journalists jailed because of their work, CPJ’s 2024 prison census has found. Belarus and Russia rounded out the top five, with CPJ documenting its second-highest number behind bars – 361 journalists incarcerated on December 1, 2024. 

CPJ recorded unprecedented totals in several countries including China, Israel, Tunisia, and Azerbaijan.

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The Committee to Protect Journalists promotes press freedom worldwide.

We defend the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.

Journalists Attacked

Myat Thu Tan

MURDERED

Myat Thu Tan, a contributor to the local news website Western News and correspondent for several independent Myanmar news outlets, was shot and killed on January 31, 2024, while in military custody in Mrauk-U in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State.

He was arrested on September 22, 2022, and held in pre-trial detention under a broad provision of the penal code that criminalizes incitement and the dissemination of false news for critical posts he made on his Facebook page. Myat Thu Tan had not been tried or convicted at the time of his death.

The journalist’s body was found buried in a bomb shelter, with the bodies of six other political detainees, and showed signs of torture.

Myanmar’s military junta has cracked down on journalists and media outlets since seizing power in a February 2021 coup.

In at least 8 out of 10 cases, the murderers of journalists go free. CPJ is waging a global campaign against impunity.

journalists killed in 2025 (motive confirmed)
imprisoned in 2023
missing globally