Russia added the independent TV channel Dozhd (TV Rain) on Friday (August 20) to a growing list of “foreign agents” media, as free organizations are facing increasing pressure in the country.
The channel first aired in 2010, but was shut down by major cable providers four years later in a so-called intimidation campaign.
It is now completely online and is one of the few media that criticize the government.
On Friday, in an operation condemned by Amnesty International, the Russian Ministry of Justice included Dozhd in its list of media organizations that “perform the functions of foreign agents.”
Organizations declared to be foreign agents must disclose the source of funds and label all their publications (including social media posts) or face fines.
The label can also act as a deterrent to advertisers.
Although Dozhd is subscription-based, advertising revenue is an important source of funding for the channel.
According to its management, the channel has been funded by the European Union since 2014, especially for the development of plans to promote European values in Russia.
“Dozhd channel is not a foreign agent…it is a Russian media,” its editor-in-chief Tikhon Dziadko said on the messaging app Telegram.
Dziadko said the channel will appeal the decision “violating the law and common sense.”
“Of course, we will continue to work as before,” he said.
The Latvia-based investigative agency iStories, its editor-in-chief Roman Anin, and five other reporters were also labeled “foreign agents” on Friday.
In May, the police searched Anin’s home and interrogated him regarding the 2016 investigation of the alleged wealth of the Russian tycoon.
Amnesty International condemned the decision, accused the Kremlin of “launching a campaign against independent media aimed at eliminating fair news reporting and investigative reporting,” and called for the abolition of the “foreign agent” law.
After several other independent news groups in Russia were recently banned or labeled the same, the Ministry of Justice made a decision on Friday.
Two other respected independent media-Meduza, VTimes and The Insider-have become foreign agents this year.
In July, the investigative agency Proekt was declared an “unpopular organization”, and under the threat of fines or imprisonment, it was basically prohibited from working in Russia.
Russia also blocked the websites of two media and a human rights organization linked to the self-exiled Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Since Putin came to power in 2000, Russia has been accused of suppressing all forms of freedom of speech on television, but online media has been able to operate relatively freely for a long time.
In recent months, Russian authorities have increased their pressure on independent media, especially on the eve of parliamentary elections in September.
We talked with the founder @tvrain And got her first reaction to her new “foreign agent” status on the TV network. Only Q*bert can capture her true feelings in a printable form. https://t.co/f61W9eGBOl
-English Medusa (@meduza_en) August 20, 2021
