Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries came close to tears in Parliament as she praised journalists risking their lives in Ukraine to bring "unbiased" news.
The top Tory praised the BBC and other outlets in an emotional moment offering "heartfelt thanks and admiration" for reporters on the frontline of the conflict.
Her comments marked a shift in tone from her ongoing criticism of the BBC, which she has previously accused of favouring "strident, very left wing, often hypocritical and frequently patronising views that turn people away.”
At last year's Conservative party conference, Ms Dorries questioned whether the BBC will exist in a decade's time as she accused the broadcaster of an "elitist" approach.
She also warned in January that the next licence fee settlement - which will run to the end of 2027 - “will be the last”.
In a Commons statement, Ms Dorries said Vladimir Putin was now in a "social and sporting Siberia of his own making" and it is causing him "real pain".
She said cultural sanctions were the "third front in the Ukrainian war" as she laid out the long list of sporting and cultural bans slapped on Russia.
Ms Dorries became emotional when she praised all the journalists in Ukraine who are "risking their lives" "to bring us unbiased and accurate news".
She said: "I'd just like to offer my heartfelt thanks and admiration to all of those journalists working for the BBC, the ITV and other news outlets who are risking their lives to bring us unbiased and accurate news from a live war zone.
"We will keep ratcheting up the pressure on Putin and I will use all the levers in my department to ensure that he is fully ostracised from the international community."
It comes as the BBC said the audience of its Russian language news website had more than tripled its year-to-date weekly average, reaching a record 10.7m people in the last week.
Ms Dorries said the BBC is a "great British global brand" in need of protection, adding: "I've always said it was a polar bear on a shrinking ice cap.
"And we need to review the funding model in order to protect the BBC, and what is best at the BBC, which includes the World Service."
She also commended citizen journalists in Ukraine who were "bringing to the world the horrors of what is happening" on the ground.
The Culture Secretary told MPs she had written to social media firms Tik Tok and Meta, Facebook's parent company, to demand they prevent access to state-owned television network Russia Today in the UK.
She said Putin "must not be allowed to exploit our open and free media to spread poisonous propaganda into British homes".
She added: "That is why I wrote to Ofcom last week urging them to examine any potential breaches of the broadcasting code.
"Ofcom has since opened 27 investigations into RT, and they are now reviewing whether to revoke RT's licence entirely.
"In the meantime, those investigations have been taken over by events and I was very glad to see yesterday that the channel is now officially off air on British televisions, after it shut down on Sky, Freeview and Freesat."
She also said that English football had "reached a turning point" after having "tolerated the investment of Russian kleptocrats for far too long".
Ms Dorries called on allies to form a joint position banning Russia from participating in international sporting events.
She is set to host sports ministers from the US, Australia, Germany, Poland, Netherlands, Latvia, Italy, Finland, Czech Republic, Norway and Canada for a summit on Thursday.
It comes after a U-turn by the International Paralympic Committee to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from the Beijing Winter Paralympics.
