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Kremlin toughens offensive against independent media

2021-07-30T14:10:06.669Z


The Russian Government intensifies the repression of the critical press to control political discourse, with the legislative elections of September in sight


With a blow, the Russian police knocked down the door of the small apartment where the university newspaper

Doxa

he had installed his writing. Immediately afterwards, that April morning, the security forces began a simultaneous raid on the apartments in Moscow of four of their journalists and two of their shocked parents. Their mobile phones and computers were seized. And they arrested the young people, accused in a criminal case of "inciting minors to dangerous behavior" for recording a video in defense of the right of students to protest, after several universities threatened to expel the participants in the actions in support of the jailed opponent Alexéi Navalni. "Journalists? For them they are extremely dangerous criminals ”, ironizes 22-year-old Nastya Yakubovskaya, editor of the online newspaper. “Anyone who does objective and independent journalism in Russia is on the target of the authorities.It doesn't matter how big or small it is, ”he warns.

The Russian government has launched an unprecedented crackdown on independent journalism.

Raids, arrests, legal proceedings, expensive bureaucracy.

After imprisoning Navalni, sentenced in a controversial case to two years and eight months in prison, and banning all organizations linked to the opposition, in addition to approving a package of measures to eliminate any dissident voice from the electoral map, the authorities are focusing now in the critical press;

also on social media.

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With the important legislative elections of September in sight, to which United Russia - the party to which the Executive gives its support - arrives with popularity low due to the increase in inflation and the constant decrease in living standards, the The Kremlin is trying to control political discourse and debate as much as possible. And that, according to Damelya Aitjozhina, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, has resulted in a campaign of "harassment and strangulation" of freedom of expression.

Young journalists Armen Aramyan, Alla Gutnikova, Vladimir Metelkin and Natalia Tyshkevich have been under house arrest since April. They could face a sentence of up to three years in prison. But

Doxa

, made up of a staff of students, recent graduates or doctorates, which made a name for itself two years ago with its in-depth coverage of the protests against the veto of independent candidates in the Moscow municipal elections and which puts special emphasis on the issues social, keep working as best you can, explains Yakubovskaya. Also, with the coverage of the news about the trial of his companions, remarks his colleague Ekaterina Moroco, 25 years old. Their persecution, they believe, shows the government's growing concern for the young public.

Nastya Yakubovskaya and Ekaterina Moroco, journalists from the student newspaper Doxa, last June in Moscow.MR Sahuquillo

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But the list of means in the target of the Russian authorities is more and more extensive.

And the harsher and more varied repression of independent journalism.

This Wednesday, the police raided the house in Moscow of Roman Dobrojotov, director of

The Insider

, and detained the well-known journalist for a few hours in the framework of an opaque case for defamation initiated by a Dutch blogger, identified by the media as a collaborator of the Russian intelligence to disseminate information about the 2014 downing of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine by a Russian missile.

It was one more step in his offense. Last week, as they have done with a long list of media, the Russian authorities designated

The Insider

as a "foreign agent." The publication, registered in Latvia, has worked with the

Bellingcat

investigative

medium

in cases such as the poisoning of Alexei Navalni, the fiercest political enemy of Russian President Vladimir Putin, attacked last summer with a neurotoxin for military use, or of the former spy Sergei Skripal.

The label of "foreign agent" has in Russia since Soviet times reminiscences of "enemy of the people" or "spy". Since 2012, following protests against the return to the presidency of Vladimir Putin from his break as prime minister by constitutional mandate, the authorities have used it to repress social organizations. From there it has been extended to other groups. Since last year, a synchronized legal reform allows it to be imposed in more and more cases on independent media and legal entities.

It implies that those designated as "foreign agents" must publish extensive reports on their financing, undergo periodic audits, and also requires the media to clearly identify themselves as such. In the media, this implies not only highlighting it in their headlines or at the beginning of each article - or even indicating it when talking about them - but also on social networks. A mechanism, warn those responsible for

Meduza –based

in Riga and one of the most widely read independent media in the country and also designated a “foreign agent” - that complicates journalistic work, dealing with sources and seriously endangers the project survival.

Russian police are detained for questioning Roman Dobrojotov, director of 'The Insider', this Wednesday in Moscow.Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP

A few weeks ago, the online newspaper

VTimes

- founded as

Meduza

by

media

exiles

who have ended up in the hands of businessmen close to the Kremlin -, also designated as a "foreign agent", was forced to shut down due to the risk to its journalists and sources. and the inability to keep advertisers. Meanwhile,

Meduza

is holding out thanks to a fundraising campaign. Other media, such as

Proekt Media,

have been declared an “undesirable organization”. And the threat of a libel prosecution looms over journalists like Roman Anin, director of the investigative

outlet iStories

(Important Stories).

Russia is a hostile country for independent journalists: up to 28 reporters have been killed in the past 20 years, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The Eurasian country ranks 150th on Reporters Without Borders' 2021 Global Press Freedom Index, below countries such as Zimbabwe and South Sudan.

So far, and without shame, the Kremlin has guaranteed control of television channels and a good number of other media by decree or checkbook.

Upon coming to power in the early 2000s, Vladimir Putin nationalized radio stations and communication channels and encouraged the sale of remaining private media to like-minded businessmen.

And he has kept the recipe.

But in the last decade, and on the Internet, which is more difficult to control despite the Kremlin's attempts, a wide range of independent media has flourished in Russia, aided by Telegram channels, with a lot of pull in the country. Projects that for the most part have not achieved the qualification of “communication medium” in Russia, where the legislation is very strict, points out Ilya Shumanov, general director of Transparency International Russia, but that are making a growing gap for themselves. Although television is the medium with the most drive, and for which 74% of citizens report, the use of Internet sources and social networks has increased to 38%, according to a 2020 survey by the Levada Center, the only independent in the country.

Pressure from the authorities or media owners is the main problem for journalists in Russia, according to data from Levada. Above low wages or lack of funding. "But the situation is so serious and risky that it can only be faced with calm," says the young

Doxa

journalist

Ekaterina Moroco. And he adds: "They can arrest me, take away my computers, my cell phone, fine me ..., but they will not take away the most important thing, which is my point of view and my values."

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-07-30

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