Knowing nothing about hiring journalists, I wonder why other news organizations like the NY Times don't hire the now-unemployed journalists. Who is more impressive, the person who just graduated from Columbia's journalism school or is the star reporter at the Des Moines Register, or the journalist who kept reporting and investigating under threats, pressure, and restrictions from the Russian dictator? After that, it's hard to imagine that an angry CEO or denying Western politician is going to intimidate or dissuade them!
This is about TV and radio I think. There are independent newspapers and websites. It is bad, but not like mainland China yet.
There's exactly a single independent newspaper left, mostly because prisoners can't access the internet but can subscribe to paper media. In practice, all independent media outlets in Russia use as many platforms as they can, TV Rain and Echo had YouTube channels that I used to visit often. This is really bad.
No? I know a person (editor/journalist) who just published a newspaper issue that is almost entirely anti-war. I have photos. It is a local paper, but it is among the most popular in the region (if not the most popular).