Several independent media houses in Russia have collectively appealed for freedom from the stringent government crackdown on journalists in the country.
According to a report published by Meduza on Wednesday, editor-in-chief Ivan Kolpakov spoke to his counterparts at five other blacklisted media outlets, including Dozhd, iStories, Proekt, The Insider, and Open Media. All six journalists echoed similar demands for the government to end the crackdown immediately. Some of them stated that they feel compelled to “quit their profession,” while others expressed that “even if they start shooting journalists in the street, they will continue to work.”
Russia is currently undergoing significant political instability and media strife, mainly provoked by opposition leader and Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s arrest in January 2021. Navalny’s campaign against Russian President Vladimir Putin and the ruling party sought to expose their crimes and mobilise votes against them. Besides banning Navalny’s campaign, app, and published works since April, Russia began declaring all opposition entities as “extremists” and independent media houses and journalists as “foreign agents.”
In August, ahead of the September 19 Parliamentary election, the Putin-led government pressurised independent media to meet the conditions imposed by a 2017 Russian law that regulates news and media content. Under this law, media platforms must provide reports on their funding and add a disclaimer to all their content.
The media houses have called this law a “death sentence for independent media” and argued that implementing such a procedure would lead to the loss of advertisers, potential sources, and reporting partners. Other than independent media houses, the law also applies to the investigative website iStories, regional publications, human rights activists, and authors, among others.
On Friday, Meduza, Dozhd, Novaya Gazeta, Forbes Russia, The Village, Republic, Wonderzine, and others published letters calling “for a return to sanity.” “We, the journalists and editors of the Russian and Russian-language mass media, demand an immediate end to the state campaign against the free press,” an appeal published by Meduza read.
“The designation of media outlets and individual citizens as “foreign agents” and “undesirable organisations” directly violates Russia’s Constitution, its law on the mass media, the nation’s Criminal Code, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees freedom of the press,” it stated.
Additionally, the appeal listed the following demands:
- Repeal Russia’s laws on “foreign agents” and “undesirable” organisations.
- Un-designate all organisations and individuals added to these registries and abolish the lists.
- Drop all unlawful misdemeanour and felony cases against journalists and launch an immediate inquiry.
Earlier this year, VTimes ceased publication after being declared a “foreign agent.” Similarly, Proekt, an investigative platform, was declared an “undesirable organisation.” The public largely perceived the silencing of both media platforms as an attempt to repress their respective investigations into senior members of the government and businessmen with reported ties to Putin.
Moreover, journalists have been organising demonstrations outside the main headquarters of the country’s top domestic security agency in Moscow’s Lubyanka Square against the crackdown on dissent. During one such protest, they held placards that read “Journalism Is Not A Crime” and “You Are Afraid Of The Truth.”
Farida Rustamova, a journalist with Dozhd who was present at the demonstration on August 22, said, “I want to work and live freely in Russia. I want to have an opportunity to be a free journalist. I don’t want my colleagues to be arrested, searched and labelled as an enemy of the people or agents.”
All journalists who participated in the demonstrations on August 22 were detained by the police and asked to attend court hearings on charges of violating rules of holding pickets. The offence carries a fine of up to $270.
In her last article from Moscow after being expelled as “a national security threat,” renowned BBC foreign correspondent Sarah Rainsford wrote, “The pressures on activists, critics and now journalists have intensified in the past year since opposition politician Alexei Navalny was poisoned. In the run-up to next month’s elections to parliament, it’s increased further still.” “By the time you read this, I’ll be on my way back to England,” she mentioned.
Rainsford has been denied a visa-renewal and ordered to leave to the United Kingdom by August-end. “I wasn’t expecting this to happen. There were clear signs for Russian media: there have been really serious problems recently, for Russian independent journalists, but until now, for the foreign press, we’d somehow been shielded from all of that,” she said.
It remains to be seen how the Putin government responds to the appeal and concerns echoed by journalists across Russia.