Freedom group’s website:- Russian authorities have blocked access to the Reporters Without Borders website in a move that the press freedom group condemned on Monday.

Censorship of the Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, website began on April 18, according to the Paris-based group. The reason for the blocking is unclear, RSF said.

“RSF’s only ‘crime’ is drawing the world’s attention to the Russian government’s abuses against journalists in Russia and Ukraine, its systematic media censorship and the state propaganda apparatus,” Jeanne Cavelier, the head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, said in a statement.

The blocking of RSF’s site adds to the more than 1.7 million URLs already blocked inside Russia, including the websites of dozens of news outlets. An RSF mirror site is still accessible within Russia, the group said.

Russia’s action comes not long before the publication of RSF’s annual World Press Freedom Index. World Press Freedom Day is May 3.

In 2023, RSF ranked Russia 164th out of 180 countries in terms of press freedom.

“The arbitrary blocking of our website yet again shows that the Kremlin and its clique tolerate no criticism. Those in Russia who want to keep abreast of RSF’s activities can nonetheless go to RSF’s mirror site,” Cavelier added in the statement.

Russia’s Washington embassy did not immediately reply to VOA’s email requesting comment.

Restricting RSF’s website underscores the poor state of press freedom in Russia, where 22 journalists were jailed as of late 2023, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Of the reporters behind bars, two of them — Alsu Kurmasheva and Evan Gershkovich — are Americans. The charges against them are widely viewed as bogus. VOA/SP