Entertainment
Russian Reporter Vanished After Media Protest
Credit: Unsplash
Amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, the control over information flow in and out of Russia is being strictly managed to prevent Russian citizens from rising against the government in demonstration. Several international news outlets have been cut off, leaving only Russian state news broadcasting continuously. Nevertheless, despite having access only to national news, activists remain firm in voicing their opposition to the war.
During Monday evening’s news segment on Channel One, a state-owned Russian television channel, journalist and editor Marina Ovsyannikova interrupted the broadcast by displaying an anti-war banner and encouraging viewers to question the information presented in the news. The sign, translated from Russian, conveyed the message “No war, stop the war, don’t believe the propaganda, they are lying to you here.”
Prior to this act of protest, Ovsyannikova had been sharing protest videos on her personal social media account, which were later obtained by the human rights organization OVD-Info. In one of the videos, she expressed, “Russia is the aggressor. And the responsibility for this crime lies solely on the conscience of one individual, and that individual is Vladimir Putin.”
?A Russian journalist who protested against the war on the country’s most popular TV channel has been missing overnight.
The location of Marina Ovsyannikova remains unknown ??https://t.co/l8MevbYPPJ pic.twitter.com/bU4RoEJ65m
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) March 15, 2022
“My father is Ukrainian, my mother is Russian. They were never adversaries,” she further stated, expressing her regret for having been a part of Moscow’s propaganda machinery.
Following her appearance on Channel One, Ovsyannikova has gone missing. There are suspicions that she might be detained by the police, although her exact location has not been confirmed as of the time of writing. There is a likelihood that Ovsyannikova could face imprisonment for her protest, given that earlier in the month, the Kremlin announced that referring to the invasion of Ukraine as a “war” constituted spreading false information, a crime that could be penalized with up to 15 years in jail.
