The BBC has issued a response to the blocking of its Russian website.
According to a spokesman, “access to accurate, independent information is a fundamental human right which should not be denied to the people of Russia, millions of whom rely on BBC News every week. We will continue our efforts to make BBC News available in Russia, and across the rest of the world”.
In a statement issue on March 2 and updated the following day, the BBC announced that the audience for its Russian language news website more than tripled its year-to-date weekly average, with a record reach of 10.7 million people in the last week (compared to 3.1 million). In English, bbc.com visitors in Russia were up 252% to 423,000 last week.
It also noted that digital live pages, giving people updates, explanation, and reports from expert journalists on the ground, were proving hugely popular.
The live page in Russian covering the invasion was the most visited site across the whole of the BBC World Service’s non-English language services, with 5.3 million views.
Audiences for the Ukrainian language site more than doubled year-to-date, with a reach of 3.9 million in the past week (compared to 1.7 million) and the audience for bbc.com increased 154% in Ukraine.
These numbers represented direct traffic to BBC websites, and are likely to rise significantly when social media audience figures are factored in.
In total, 77.4 million unique visitors consumed BBC online coverage of Ukraine in English in the first five days of the invasion, with almost 200 million views of the live page on Ukraine.
Tim Davie, BBC DG, said: “It’s often said truth is the first casualty of war. In a conflict where disinformation and propaganda is rife, there is a clear need for factual and independent news people can trust – and in a significant development, millions more Russians are turning to the BBC”.
“We will continue giving the Russian people access to the truth, however we can”.
The BBC said it has also stepped up services on other platforms. It has launched two new shortwave frequencies in the region for four hours of World Service English news a day. These frequencies can be received clearly in Kyiv and parts of Russia.
Broadband TV News notes that TV Dohzd (TV Rain), one of the last independent TV broadcasters in Russia, has gone off the air after being accused by the regulator Roskomnadzor of Inciting extremism.
