February 2022; due to its coverage of the invasion, the site was blocked on the territory of Russia by Roskomnadzor among other news websites due to the "systematic dissemination of fakes". Actions of the Russian authorities from 2021 caused financial difficulties for Meduza, as it stopped many advertisers from Russia, which were the portal's main source of income, from displying their ads at Medusa's pages. This resulted in an international campaign to collect funds to ensure Medusa's survival through donations and buying subscriptions. On March 11, Reporters Without Borders announced a mirror site has been set up. Structure By 2014 Meduza had a team of around 20 journalists. No Latvian journalists contribute to the project. Since March 2015, Meduza has published a daily news called “Evening Meduza”. In September 2022, it announced the creation of English email dispatch 'The Beet', aiming to amplify "local perspectives" from Central/Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, "without centering Moscow". Audience Three months after opening, Meduza had 1.3 million monthly readers of its Internet publication. In 2017, Meduza had 7.5 million readers per month and 2 million followers on social media. In 2020, Meduza was the leading Russian site in social media links, according to , a company that monitors and analyzes exclusivity Russian sites on media and social networks. Meduza grants open source access to all they coverage of the war in Ukraine under a Creative Commons license. The articles can be reprinted in full (CC BY 4.0, does not apply to photos). Censorship Meduza aims to fill a market niche that exists due to "a long list of forbidden topics which Russian media do not raise for various reasons—due to direct and indirect censorship". The day after it was launched, Meduza was blocked in Kazakhstan, probably due to an article about the city of Oskemen (Ust-Kamenogorsk). Access to the site has also been blocked in Uzbekistan. Meduza has installed technical measures to circumvent censorship with their mobile apps. In June 2019, Meduza journalist Ivan Golunov was arrested by Russian police for claimed drug offences. Colleagues and friends of Golunov said they believed the charges to be fabricated, motivated by his investigations into corruption. Following a public outcry, Golunov was released, and five police officers were fired and later arrested. On 23 April 2021, the Russian Ministry of Justice designated Meduza as a "foreign agent". In response, the European Union rejected the decision,