Apple has removed Meduza’s flagship news podcast ‘What Happened’ from Apple Podcasts. Earlier this summer, the Russian state censorship authority had asked Apple to block the show
Meduza has received a notice from Apple, informing our media that our flagship podcast “What Happened” has been removed from the Apple Podcasts streaming platform.
Just a couple years ago Meduza was a very prominent news outlet in Russia.
There weren't that many and they weren't allowed on TV, but you could always see their presence on the Internet.
Since adoption of a law about foreign agents in 2017 many if not most of such news outlets were deemed as "foreign agents" and faced problems with funding. And yet persisted.
2022 was the breaking point. In February all of the remaining oppositional news started to get blocked. One by one.
By 2023 all of them ceased operation as Russian media and migrated abroad due to de facto being outlawed.
Taking control over media is how Putin started his presidency. This is what came out of it.
If there is nobody to speak, then there's nobody who'll listen.