Russia is ranked #152 out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index.
“While Russia’s leading TV channels continue to inundate viewers with propaganda, the Ukrainian crisis led to an increase in pressure on independent media, with a string of draconian laws, website blocking and leading independent news outlets either being brought under control or throttled out of existence. The climate has become very oppressive for those who question the new patriotic and neo-conservative discourse and, in some regions, local despots have taken advantage of this new climate to step up their persecution of critics.”
https://index.rsf.org/#!/index-details/RUS
And this is a bad thing when they (Media) are devoted to telling lies???
Talk about crossed purposes, clear as a bell to me...
Robert Menard, the Secretary General of RSF, was forced to confess that RSF’s budget was primarily provided by “US organizations strictly linked with US foreign policy” (Thibodeau, La Presse).
NED (US$39,900 paid 14 Jan 2005)
Center for a Free Cuba (USAID and NED funded) $50,000 per year NED grant. Contract was signed by Otto Reich
European Union (1.2m Euro) — currently contested in EU parliament
Rights & Democracy in 2004 supported Reporters Without Borders-Canada [1]
“Grants from private foundations (Open Society Foundation, Center for a Free Cuba, Fondation de France, National Endowment for Democracy) were slightly up, due to the Africa project funded by the NED and payment by Center for a Free Cuba for a reprint of the banned magazine De Cuba.”
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Reporters_Without_Borders
In other words, a wholly owned subsidiary of the USG, EU, and George Soros.
And the US is ranked #49. Behind Niger and Botswana.
Sounds about right.