Several Western news organizations suspended operations in Russia.

Several Western media organizations suspended their operations in Russia on Friday in the wake of a new government campaign against news and free speech.

The new censorship law signed by Mr. Putin on Friday made it impossible for correspondents in Russia to report freely. Journalists who describe the war as a war could be sentenced to prison if the legislation takes effect as early as Saturday.

The change to the criminal code, which seems designed to turn any independent reporter into a criminal solely by association, makes it impossible to continue any semblance of normal journalism inside the country.

CNN International stopped airing in Russia, and ABC News decided not to broadcast from the country on Friday.

News organizations aren't necessarily asking their correspondents to leave Russia.

We are not pulling out the journalists from Moscow, according to Jonathan Munro, the interim director of BBC News.

He said that he was thinking of colleagues in Moscow who had their voices silenced.

The New York Times had no comment on Friday.

The law builds on the Kremlin's insistence that characterizations of its attacks on Ukraine as war or invasion are not allowed. Several independent Russian media outlets shut down their operations because of its passage.

Several foreign news outlets said their journalists would continue to report on the Russian invasion. The BBC said this week that it would use short wave radio frequencies to broadcast news in parts of Russia.

Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for Russia's Foreign Ministry, accused the BBC of playing a "determined role in undermining the Russian stability and security."

The last remnants of a Russian free press have been dismantled by Mr. Putin. The pillars of Russia's independent broadcast media collapsed on Thursday.

The freewheeling radio station that was founded by Soviet dissidents in 1990 and symbolized Russia's new freedoms wasliquidated by its board. TV Rain said it would suspend operations indefinitely.

The newspaper that survived the murders of six of its journalists, Novaya Gazeta, could be on the verge of shutting down as well, according to the journalist who shared the peace prize last year.