Independent Russian TV channel Dozhd (TV Rain) received a five-year broadcasting permit in the Netherlands. The Dutch Media Authority granted the channel a licence to broadcast its content on cable networks across the EU countries. As DW reports, the permit is dated December 22, but first media reports about the news appeared this week.

Dozhd relaunched outside Russia in the summer of 2022 amidst the Kremlin’s crackdown on free press following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The channel was to be operating from Georgia, Latvia, France, and the Netherlands. In December the organisation saw its licence in Latvia revoked as a result of multiple occasions where Dozhd mistakenly broadcast content seemingly supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine. Dozhd apologised for the errors and says it firmly opposes Russia’s invasion.

More from The Fix: Weekly Digest: Dozhd’s licence revoked in Latvia, New York Times journalists on strike

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) opened a new office in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, to provide better coverage of Belarus and Russia and counter Russian disinformation. The office will house staff displaced from the two countries controlled by authoritarian regimes, including Current Time, a Russian-language video platform.

The broadcaster, funded by the US government, has a long history of breaking through state propaganda in Eastern Europe in the times of the Soviet Union. In recent years, as the region has seen growing crackdowns on free press and attracted the world’s attention with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, RFE/RL has invested more resources in its coverage.

More from The Fix: How a narrative podcast from Radio Svaboda helped counter news fatigue in Belarus

UK publisher Reach will cut 200 jobs – about 5% of its workforce – in an effort to cut costs amid the decline in print and digital ads. The company is trying to save £30 million (€34 million) in the wake of the underwhelming results of the season typically most conducive to ad sales – the World Cup, Black Friday and Christmas.

Reach is the UK’s largest newspaper publisher that owns Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Daily Star, and numerous regional newspapers. The company “reported a slump of 20.2% in print advertising and 5.9% in digital ads in the traditionally strong fourth quarter”, The Guardian writes. An additional problem it faces is rising costs, including the costs of newsprint that increased by 60% over the last year.

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Source of the photos: https://ua.depositphotos.com and Petr Kadlec, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

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