Interestingly, they also work for accessing RT and Sputnik from the EU that are banning them.
This seems like a boneheaded move. What credibility will the EU have in criticizing media censorship in Russia when they engage in censorship themselves?
https://www.rt.com/russia/551256-how-access-rt-censorship-by...
But accessing them on the internet is not. Or in which EU country it has been blocked?
(I'm in EU but have not tried. Not interested in their content even for curiosity. I can read in our media what they say: There is no war. Ukraine is no nation, but Russians suppressed by nazis that ask to be liberated. In Russian media other standpoints are not mentioned at all.)
Edit: I have no good feeling about banning them. But I understand the Baltic countries: They have a substantial Russian-speaking community that consumes only Russian state media.
If you're not interested in looking even for curiosity, how would you know whether your media is representing them accurately?
Do you think it would be reasonable for people in Russia to say they're not interested in looking at the BBC, even for curiosity, because they can read all about what the BBC are saying in Russian media?
There are other wars were EU and NATO don't give a good picture. 1000s of people drowng in the Mediterranean.
But still I have a basic trust and know that outright lies are much less common in Western media than in Russian ones. If you don't count reports how Trump's victory was stolen. But the US is dangerously close from leaving Western democracy standards. Not the media, but 48% or so of the voters.
How would you know?
This is a whole new level to banning Iranian and Lybian TV broadcasts by Ofcom by the UK. Very irresponsible and completely ignorant of all the slippery slopes and blowback that can happen. At least ICANN and the EFF is run by cooler heads.
But maybe you should check indian news which reported that Russia promised them buses to extract indian students[2].
[1] https://www.newspostalk.com/internet-service-provider-cogent...
[2] https://theprint.in/world/130-russian-buses-ready-to-evacuat...
Though thinking further I kind of get where you are coming from - there's English language media from a certain country that's so bad at propaganda I cringe just reading the headline. Guess I'm not as open minded as I thought I was.
Yes, I trust them in that respect. I do disagree with quite many positions of Western society and their media. But I do trust them that they correctly summarize what Russian report about the war, which they are not allowed to call a war.
As a foreigner who speaks Finnish I am aware of the weird myths that can be spread by foreign media who don't speak the language. If you search HN submissions for Finland/Finnish you will find some of those, many of those I would see much more nuanced.
But I do trust that official Russia lying about the war is a fact.
Moscow maintains its military offensive in Ukraine is a “special operation” aimed at the [...]
Russia *attacked Ukraine* last week, *arguing that it was defending the DPR* and the neighboring Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), which broke away from Ukraine shortly after the 2014 coup in Kiev. *Moscow also said* it was seeking the “demilitarization and denazification” of the country.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said the attack was entirely unprovoked and has appealed to the international community for help.
Actually, no matter who it is, you can't and hope to get a proper sense of it. Try it sometime. Luck anyone controversial, especially if your really dislike them. Read an account of s sketch they gave in "your media" whatever that is for you. Then read the original transcript.
I tried this with Assange more than a decade ago. I had the idea he was a bedrock lunatic crazy reading the accounts. Then i read transcripts it watched video if him and decided well be may be wrong about everything but that impression about what he was was just very wrong. Cherry picked, edited, context missing to make him seem as repulsive as they possibly could in every dimension.
Always form your own view and don't let it be handed to you fully formed. Go for the source documents whenever you can /especially/ when everyone is angry and upset. You're unlikely to change 180 at all. You are likely to have a deeper understanding of nuance and who is taking advantage of the situation for their own ends and why.
This advice is the same for American media if you don't live in the US, or middle eastern, or African it Asian.
At the minimum it should take you no more than 10 minutes to confirm RT is exactly what you think it is and that is worthwhile in itself.