Russia fines newspaper editor for 'discrediting the army'

Sergei Sokolov, the editor of independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, attends a court hearing in Moscow, Russia February 29, 2024. Moscow City Court’s Press Office/Handout via REUTERS.

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian authorities on Thursday fined journalist Sergei Sokolov, the editor of independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, for discrediting the army after detaining him, his newspaper reported.

Sokolov said he did not agree with the charge against him.

The case stemmed from an article published in Novaya Gazeta in December 2023 entitled “Nobody’s boys” about Russians orphans who signed army contracts to fight in Ukraine, the official Telegram channel for Moscow’s court system said.

FILE PHOTO: Novaya Gazeta newspaper’s editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov and deputy editor-in-chief Sergei Sokolov sit in a corridor before a court hearing of a case to revoke the newspaper’s media license in Moscow, Russia, September 5, 2022. REUTERS/Filipp Lebedev/File Photo

Novaya Gazeta said in an online report that Sokolov’s detention was over coverage of the Russian army in an article, but did not provide more details.

A district court in Moscow subsequently fined Sokolov 30,000 roubles ($327.88) on Thursday after finding him guilty of discrediting the Russian armed forces, an administrative offence.

FILE PHOTO: Journalists gather in front of a screen in a room of Russia’s Supreme Court during a hearing of a case to revoke the registration of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta’s website in Moscow, Russia September 15, 2022. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina/File Photo

Russian news agency TASS reported that Sokolov had “posted material on the Novaya Gazeta Telegram channel” which showed “signs of verbally discrediting the actions” of the army.

Novaya Gazeta is known for its investigations which have sometimes taken aim at the Kremlin, government policy and top officials.

Its former editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov, a Nobel prize winning journalist, stepped aside in September to challenge his designation by authorities as a “foreign agent”, a label Moscow uses for people it deems to be working against Russian state interests.

($1 = 91.4955 roubles)

(Reporting by ReutersWriting by John DavisonEditing by Tomasz Janowski/Andrew Osborn)