A committee of the Russian parliament has recommended the adoption of a proposed law that would require journalists working for media outlets designated as foreign agents to register as agents themselves.

The measure, which the lower parliament’s information committee recommended on Tuesday, follows a law adopted last year under which Russia can designate media outlets receiving foreign government funding as foreign agents.

Naming an outlet as a foreign agent does not block its work but casts aspersions on its credibility. Demanding that individual journalists register as agents could produce a chilling effect.

The proposed law “is the latest step in the Russian authorities’ systematic policy towards obstructing the free flow of news,” said Gulonoza Said of the Committee to Protect Journalists in a statement Tuesday.

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