Russian authorities said earlier this month that they detained Griner at a Moscow-area airport for allegedly transporting vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage.
State TV has long been Russians' top news source. Now it's becoming the only word of record, presenting stories of "surgical" attacks on Ukrainian nationalists and threats of anti-Russian bioweapons.
The recently expanded law says that freelance journalists, YouTube bloggers and practically anyone else who receives money from abroad and voices a political opinion can be considered a foreign agent.
There is almost no news alternative to government propaganda on Russian television — save for one channel known as TV Rain. But it only streams on the Web after cable dropped.