In reaction to UK sanctions against Russian public figures, Russia has banned key UK-based journalists and defence figures.
Clive Myrie, Orla Guerin, and Nick Beake of the BBC, as well as Director General Tim Davie, are among the 29 media figures on the list.
A spokeswoman for the BBC stated that the organisation “will continue to report independently and fairly.”
Journalists from Sky TV, the Times, the Guardian, Channel Four, and ITV are also prohibited.
Hundreds of elected British MPs have already been barred from entering Russia.
The Russian foreign ministry indicated that efforts to broaden the list would continue.
“The British journalists included on the list are involved in deliberate dissemination of false and one-sided information about Russia and events in Ukraine and Donbas,” Russia’s foreign ministry said. “With their biased assessments they also contribute to fuelling Russophobia in British society.”
Stuart Ramsay, the chief correspondent for Sky News, who is also on the list was wounded in a Russian ambush while reporting outside Kyiv at the same time.
John Witherow, editor of The Times, Chris Evans of the Telegraph, Katharine Viner of the Guardian, and Ted Verity of the Daily Mail are among the other high-profile journalists on the list.
On the list are Guardian correspondents Shaun Walker and Luke Harding, as well as BBC presenters Sophy Ridge, Nick Robinson, and Cathy Newman, columnists Con Coughlin and Gideon Rachman, and Russia expert Mark Galeotti.
After having lived in Russia for more than a decade, Shaun Walker said he was not in a hurry to return, but it was nevertheless a “really strange/sad feeling” to be on the list.
Russia has shut down independent media sites and made reporting on its war in Ukraine that it views to be “false information” illegal. Moscow refers to its invasion as a “special military operation,” rather than a war.
Russia has also used the term “foreign agent” to describe journalists and other people it doesn’t like. On Tuesday, the European Court of Human Rights concluded that the legislation in question infringed on the rights of persons implicated.
There are prominent members in the armed forces who are not journalists on the sanctions list, notably Royal Navy Chief Adm Sir Ben Key and Air Force Chief Sir Michael Wigston. Alex Cresswell, the head of Thales UK, and other senior colleagues, as well as a number of top BAE Systems executives, including the company’s overall CEO Charles Woodburn, have been forbidden from entering Russia.
