A small Norwegian news service\u00a0publishing news from the cross-border Barents region is taking Russia\u2019s media regulation agency Roskomnadzor to court in an attempt to overturn the country’s\u00a0ban on its online\u00a0content. The Kirkenes-based\u00a0Barents Observer\u00a0publishes news in English and Russian, covering news from the north of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.<\/p>\n
Roskomnadzor censors took issue with the Russian language version<\/a> of the article “From suicide attempts to happiness and S\u00e1mi pride<\/a>,” published in January 2019. It tells the story first shared in Swedish media of Dan Eriksson, a proud gay S\u00e1mi who\u00a0overcame years of mental health issues and two suicide attempts before finding the courage to talk. He now works with\u00a0LGBT+ youth\u00a0and talks openly about his experiences in order to help others. Roskomnadzor\u00a0claims the article\u00a0is in conflict with federal laws\u00a0on information and that it propagates suicide. The Barents Observer website has been blocked in Russia\u00a0since February.<\/p>\n “I argue that the interview with Dan Eriksson will help others overcome traumatic taboos. This is the opposite to propagating\u00a0suicide,” says\u00a0Thomas Nilsen, the multilingual editor of the Barents Observer. He believes that the article is not the real issue behind the censorship.\u00a0“We think that if it wasn\u2019t this article, it would be another. We are one of the few media outlets publishing in Russian on foreign servers that are outside the control of Russian authorities,” he says.<\/p>\n The St. Petersburg-based Memorial Anti-Discrimination Center (ADC) are among the Barents Observer’s backers. They support<\/a> the newspaper\u2019s decision not to unpublish the story from its website. “We think that the interview with the gay S\u00e1mi man is very important and the ban of this article is a clear case of discrimination,” said director Stephania Kulaeva.<\/p>\n