MOSCOW, August 28 (RAPSI) – A magistrate court of Moscow’s Tverskoy district on Friday fined Radio Svoboda (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty) 300,000 rubles ($4,000) for fake information on the equipment deficiency in St. Petersburg hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, the court’ press service told RAPSI.

The broadcaster was found guilty of distribution of knowingly false socially significant information masquerading as hard facts.

The media was fined for a publication reading that there is deficiency of lung ventilators and alleged discontinuation of the ventilation of serious coronavirus-infected patients. Earlier, the article was banned in Russia and blocked upon a request of the Prosecutor General’s Office.