Justice in Russia: Journalist who crashed country’s state news show dragged to court the day after
A Russian journalist who interrupted a state broadcast with a sign saying it was “lying” about the war in Ukraine, has now appeared in court the following day.
Lawyers for Marina Ovsyannikova accompanied her to court, after saying she had been “imprisoned for more than 12 hours” with no contact.
Ovsyannikova was detained after the protest because of a new Moscow law that bans anyone calling Russia’s assault against Ukraine an ‘invasion’ or ‘war’, as well as fighting so-called ‘fake news’ about the attack.
In a tweet posted by @mediazone_by, a Russian-language account, an image was shared of Ovsyannikova alongside lawyer Anton Gashinsky. The picture was from Sergei Badamshin, a legal representative from the Conference of Human Rights.
Anastasia Kostanova, one of her legal representatives, told the BBC, that immediately after the stunt, authorities were “hiding her from her lawyers and trying to deprive her of legal assistance and, apparently, they are trying to prepare the most stringent prosecution.”
Taking to Twitter, Pavel Chikov, another representative, said she had been “imprisoned for more than 12 hours”.
She was a former employee of the broadcaster, and said she was “ashamed” of her work, in a pre-recorded video.
It also emerged that Vladimir Putin’s government has been pressing Russian news outlets to highlight comments from Tucker Carlson, the host of US network, Fox News.
According to the Mother Jones newsletter, Putin sent a 12-page memo at the start of the month to friendly outlets saying it was “essential to use as much as possible fragments of broadcasts” from Carlson, because he “sharply criticises the actions of the United States and NATO”.