Ukraine war: "Spreading lies about Russia's armed forces" - journalist faces further punishment

Created: 03/18/2022, 04:50

By: Lukas Zigo, Tim Vincent Dicke

Marina Ovsyannikova demonstrates against the Ukraine war on Russian TV.

The journalist fears for her safety after her protest.

• In protest against Vladimir Putin* and the Ukraine war

  *

  , a journalist storms a live broadcast in Moscow.

• The journalist holds up a placard condemning the attack from Russia

  *

  on Ukraine * and calling for peace.

• After the public protest against the Ukraine conflict * on state television, the journalist disappears temporarily.

  All information about their fate and the effects of their action in our new ticker.

+++ 7.30 p.m .:

 The opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta dedicated its front page to editor Marina Ovssyannikova on Wednesday for its courageous anti-war protest on Russian state television.

The newspaper printed a full-page picture of Ovsyannikova with her poster, which she had held up to the camera behind the news anchor of Channel One on Monday evening - but pixelated the word "war" three times.

In Russia, the media is officially forbidden to speak of "war", "invasion" or "invasion" in neighboring Ukraine.

On Telegram, Novaya Gazeta later complained that many kiosks refused to sell the issue.

The journalists called on their readers to pick up the paper personally from the Moscow editorial office, which is headed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitri Muratov.

In addition to the fine already imposed, Ovsyannikova faces another penalty.

Investigations have been launched into the alleged spread of lies about Russia's armed forces, the state agency TASS reported, citing a source with the investigative authorities.

It was feared that Ovssyannikova could still be prosecuted under the new media law, which provides for up to 15 years in prison.

Protest against Ukraine war 'sends shockwaves through Russian society'

+++ 1:25 p.m .:

The Russian TV journalist Marina Ovsjannikova is extremely concerned about her safety and that of her children after her protest in front of the cameras against the war in Ukraine.

Nevertheless, she has no plans to flee Russia, as she said in an interview with the Reuters news agency.

Ovsyannikova hopes that her protest has not been in vain.

She also wishes that the Russian population would open their eyes and question war propaganda more closely.

The screenshot from the Twitter news platform shows a statement by Marina Ovsyannikova before her action on Russian television.

© dpa/Twitter

Marina Ovsyannikova's Ukraine War Protest 'Sends Shockwaves Through Russian Society'

+++ 11.13 a.m .:

After the sensational protest on Russian state television by Marina Owssjannikova, French President Emmanuel Macron offered the TV journalist protection.

"Of course we will take diplomatic steps to protect your colleague, either in the embassy or in asylum," Macron said when asked by a French journalist.

He will propose this solution very directly and concretely in his next meeting with Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin.

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Update from Wednesday, March 16th, 2022, 6:25 a.m.:

The Russia expert Daria Khrushcheva sees the protest by Marina Ovssyannikova on Russian television as a tendency for Russian journalists to increasingly oppose Vladimir Putin.

"That's a good sign," said the Slavicist from the Ruhr University Bochum to the Evangelical Press Service.

The action shows that journalists working for state media in Russia are doing something.

The prominent moderator Lilia Gildeeva fled Russia and then resigned in protest at the Russian propaganda in the media.

War in Ukraine: Marina Ovsyannikova's protest has an effect

+++ 7.15 p.m .:

The protest by the journalist Marina Owssjannikova against the Ukraine war on live Russian television seems to have the desired effect.

The action sent "shock waves through Russian society," Yakov Kronrod, an American of Russian descent who is currently in Moscow, told US news channel CNN.

According to Konrod, even pro-state media such as the Yandex News portal reported on the protest.

"Thousands of comments were left on her Facebook page," says Konrod.

"This could very well be the start of a whole wave of protests."

War in Ukraine: Marina Owssjannikova has been sentenced

Update from Tuesday, March 15th, 2022, 6:12 p.m.:

After protesting against the Ukraine war on Russian state TV, the journalist Marina Ovssjannikova was fined 30,000 rubles (226 euros) in Moscow.

The verdict was issued because Owsyannikova had called for protests against Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine in a video, as the civil rights portal OWD-Info reported on Tuesday (March 15, 2022).

Her lawyers previously told the BBC that they had not been able to reach the journalist for hours and that she had disappeared.

However, prominent Russian journalist Alexei Venediktov later shared a photo of the editor with her lawyer Anton Gashinsky in a courthouse.

Protest against the Ukraine war: High penalties were feared

The EU had also shown concern after the temporary disappearance of Ovsyannikova.

"Her lawyers are not allowed to contact her," said a spokesman for EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell.

The protest is the latest example of a courageous stance that refutes the Kremlin's lies and propaganda.

At first it was feared that Ovsyannikova could be convicted under the controversial new law for defaming the Russian army.

There is a risk of up to 15 years imprisonment.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the incident as "hooliganism" and that the station management had to take care of it.

Not even the state media could avoid reporting about it because of the large public.

Anti-Putin protest in the Ukraine war: editor disappeared after arrest

First report from Tuesday, March 15th, 2022:

Moscow – During the live broadcast of the most important news program in Russia there was an unusual protest on Monday: A woman demonstrated in the television studio with a protest poster and loud calls against the Ukraine war.

According to the organization OWD-Info, it was Marina Ovsjannikova, an employee of the station.

She had been arrested.

There has been no sign of life from her since the arrest.

During the Pervy Kanal broadcast “Vremya” on Monday evening (03/14/2022), she suddenly appeared behind the news anchor Ekaterina Andreeva, holding a sign that read “Stop the war.

Don't believe the propaganda.

Here you will be lied to” into the camera.

She also shouted "Stop the war!" before the live broadcast ended and a report on hospitals aired.

Ukraine war: There has been no trace of a journalist since her arrest - lawyers on the hunt

Since the Ukraine conflict protest, four different lawyers have tried to locate the editor in Moscow, but to no avail.

Nobody has seen Marina Ovsiannikova since her arrest.

One of the lawyers, Daniil Berman, told the medium meduza about his search for the journalist.

According to this, Marina Ovsjannikova was last taken to the police department in Moscow's Ostankinsky district.

However, when asked by a human rights organization, the police said that the journalist was no longer in the police station.

On the night of March 15, it became known that Ovzyannikova was in the duty room of the Ostankinsky TV tower in Moscow.

However, when lawyer Anri Tsiskarishvili tried to get there, he couldn't find the arrested journalist.

Other sources told him that she was no longer at the Ostakino police station either.

Journalist detained at unknown location: "She is being hidden by her lawyers"

Meanwhile, Anastasia Kostanova, another lawyer for the missing editor, spoke to the BBC.

"My colleagues and I searched all night for the journalist who was being held in the Channel One building," the lawyer said.

But Marina Ovsyannikova could not be found.

"It means hiding her from her lawyers, trying to deprive her of legal representation and apparently also trying to prepare the most severe punishment," the lawyer told the BBC.

Russian journalist arrested: Corresponding law was specially passed

In a statement released by the Russian news agency Tass, the broadcaster spoke of an "incident with a strange woman during the recording".

There will be an internal investigation into the protest against the Ukraine war.

According to Tass, the young woman could be prosecuted for "discrediting the use of the Russian armed forces".

The Russian parliament recently passed a law providing for up to 15 years in prison for spreading "false news" about the military.

This made it a punishable offense to describe the Russian military operation as “war”.

This is to prevent reporting on the war in Ukraine.

Russia – journalist admits to propaganda: “I am very ashamed of that today”

In a pre-recorded video released by OWD-Info, Ovzyannikova explained that her father is Ukrainian and her mother is Russian.

Therefore, she cannot bear to see the two countries as enemies.

“Unfortunately I have worked for Pervy Kanal in recent years and done propaganda for the Kremlin.

I'm very ashamed of that today," she said.

"We were silent in 2014 when it all just started

," she said, apparently referring to Moscow's takeover of Crimea and support for pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine.

“We didn't go to protests when the Kremlin (now-imprisoned opposition figure Alexei) poisoned Navalny

.

We simply observed this misanthropic regime in silence.

And now the whole world has turned its back on us.”

Russia: Journalist's protest action draws great admiration

A video of the protest action during the news broadcast spread like wildfire on social media.

Numerous Internet users worldwide praised the woman's "extraordinary courage".

A confidante of Kremlin critic Navalny, Leonid Volkov, announced on Twitter that the opposition movement was "ready to pay any fine" imposed on Ovzyannikova.

(lz/afp/dpa)