MOSCOW -The lower house of Russia's parliament gave final approval Thursday to a bill that would allow the banning of foreign news media in response to other countries' actions against Russian news outlets. The Kremlin-controlled State Duma approved the bill on its final, third reading. Russia has repeatedly complained in recent months that Western countries were improperly restricting Russian media by banning their operation or denying visas to their journalists. The Russian Foreign Ministry in May ordered the closure of the Moscow bureau pf the state-funded Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in response to Canada's ban on RT, a Russian state-controlled broadcaster. Following the start of the Ukraine conflict, many significant independent news media shut down or suspended operations.

Source: CBC News June 30, 2022 11:49 UTC