Journalist jailed for spreading fake news about Ukraine Russia war

A Russian court has sentenced a journalist to 8 years in prison for reporting on the Ukraine-Russia war. The journalist, Sergei Mikhailov, was charged with “deliberately spreading false information” about the Russian military. He was later sentenced to eight years in prison for publishing ‘fake news’.

Prosecutors in the city of Gorno-Altaysk in the southern Altai region cited the 48-year-old journalist in court as motivated by “political animosity,” the Net Freedoms Project, a human rights group, said on its Telegram channel on Friday (August 30), Qatar-based news outlet Al Jazeera said.

In addition to the prison sentence, the court imposed a four-year ban on Mikhailov’s journalistic and publishing activities. It is known that Mikhailov worked as a journalist in Listok. He was arrested in 2022 for reporting on the Tadre Telegram channel and website about civilian killings in Bucha, northwest of the Ukrainian capital Kiev, and Russian shelling and killing in the southeastern city of Mariupol.

Rights groups say Russian forces have carried out heavy attacks on areas in Ukraine, including the two cities. The journalist said he had done nothing wrong, the Net Freedoms Project said. He also expressed hope that his lawyers will start working against this verdict. Earlier in the week, Mikhailov told the court he stood by the published report. He also criticized the Kremlin for sending troops to Ukraine.