Russia’s leading independent media called on Vladimir Putin and other senior government officials to stop repressing journalists. Over the past year, some top media outlets in some countries have been declared foreign agents or completely banned.
More than a dozen media, including Meduza, TV Rain, and Novaya Gazeta, have signed an open letter to the government, calling on the government to remove individual journalists and their media from the blacklist, and to completely abolish “foreign agents” and “unhealthy agents”. Organization’s law.
The letter read: “We believe that these incidents are part of a coordinated campaign aimed at destroying the independent Russian media, and that all their’criminal’ is constituted by their honest performance of their professional duties to readers.” “We demand an immediate stop. This movement.”
According to the 2017 Russian law, top media and individual journalists have been declared foreign agents, and the law requires them to post a disclaimer on any content they produce and provide reports on their funds. They think this is a death sentence for independent media because it scares off advertisers, potential sources and reporting partners.
The list includes well-known media such as Radio Free funded by the United States Europe, Riga-based Meduza, Bellingcat partners The Insider, TV Rain, investigative website iStories, regional publications and other institutions, including well-known human rights activists.
Some media outlets stated that they were forced to shut down because foreign agency statements undermined their business model. VTimes is a publication mainly composed of former Vedomosti reporters who left the newspaper during the review period. Stopped publishing earlier this year After being declared as a foreign agent.
Others have been completely banned. Earlier this year, the investigative news media Proekt was declared an unpopular organization, and it was widely regarded as retaliation for a series of sensational investigations conducted by senior government members and businessmen reportedly linked to Putin.
The organization also published an investigation claiming to have confirmed that a young woman was Putin’s daughter, allegedly born to the mistress of the Russian president.
Despite the open letter, it seems unlikely that the government will stop its suppression of the media. BBC senior reporter Expected to leave the country at the end of the month Because her visa has not been extended, it means that in a situation similar to China, foreign media may also face greater pressure.
