Russia designates Norwegian media outlet an 'undesirable organisation'

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The office of Russia's Prosecutor General said on Friday it had designated The Barents Observer, a Norwegian media outlet, as an "undesirable organisation", a move which effectively bans it outright in Russia.

The Prosecutor General accused the news outlet, which publishes in English and Russian, of disseminating information "with a pronounced anti-Russian orientation".

It said it had published articles aimed at "stimulating protest sentiment among the population of Russia's northern regions, at toughening anti-Russian sanctions, and at encouraging the need to build up NATO's military presence near our borders".

In a statement, the prosecutor's office added: "A significant amount of information disseminated by the organisation is devoted to discrediting the activities of the armed forces of the Russian Federation."

Thomas Nilsen, the editor of the Barents Observer, which has six journalists on its staff according to its website, said he regarded the designation as recognition that his publication was doing "a good job".

"Journalism is no crime, the crime is to stop free media and freedom of expression," Nilsen, who was in 2017 banned from entering Russia by the FSB security service for five years on national security grounds which he disputed, told Reuters in a statement.

"The Barents Observer will continue to report, in Russian and English languages, about important developments in the Russian north," said Nilsen, whose publication also writes about developments on the heavily militarised Kola Peninsula where Russia's Northern Fleet is headquartered.

Nilsen, who has hired Russian journalists who left the country due to Russia's war in Ukraine, said he linked the timing of the Russian decision to a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights on Thursday which said that a 2019 move by Russia's communications regulator to block the website of the Barents Observer in Russia violated freedom of expression.

Russia's parliament in 2022 passed a pair of bills ending the European Court of Human Rights’ jurisdiction in the country, a rupture provoked by the conflict in Ukraine.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Andrew Osborn in London; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)