A Moscow court has fined The New Times, an independent news website, a total of 790,000 rubles (more than $14,000) for publishing “fake” information about the war in Ukraine, Interfax reported on Wednesday.
Publishing information contradicting Moscow’s official narrative of its invasion of Ukraine, which it calls a “special military operation,” is illegal under laws passed shortly after the Kremlin sent troops into its western neighbor.
Moscow’s Simonovsky district court fined The New Times on three counts of publishing war “fakes,” the outlet’s lawyer Leonid Solovyov told Interfax.
It was not immediately clear which articles were tied to the fines.
Prominent human rights lawyer Pavel Chikov said the fines stemmed from articles published after the start of the war on Feb. 24 but before the new laws’ passage in early March.
The New Times is a Russian weekly magazine turned online news media.
Its chief editor, renowned independent journalist Yevgenia Albats, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Albats was previously fined under the same administrative charge on March 30 and ordered to pay 120,000 rubles ($2,191).