Bloomberg Suspends Work of Its Journalists in Russia, CNN Stops Broadcasts

Bloomberg News announced, on Friday, it was temporally halting the work of its journalists in Russia amid escalating war in Ukraine.

Global news media, including Bloomberg, CNN, and BBC, announced they were suspending reporting in Russia to protect their journalists after a new law that threatened jail terms of up to 15 years for spreading "fake news".

"We have with great regret decided to temporarily suspend our news gathering inside Russia," Bloomberg quoted the news agency's editor-in-chief John Micklethwait as saying.

"The change to the criminal code, which seems designed to turn any independent reporter into a criminal purely by association, makes it impossible to continue any semblance of normal journalism inside the country," Micklethwait said.

In the same vein, CNN said the 24-hour US cable television news network "will stop broadcasting in Russia while we continue to evaluate the situation and our next steps moving forward."

Also, the BBC announced it was halting its journalists' work in Russia and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) said it was temporarily halting reporting from Russia.

"This legislation appears to criminalise the process of independent journalism," BBC Director-General Tim Davie said in a statement.

Davie also warned that journalists could face "the risk of criminal prosecution simply for doing their jobs."