Russ TV-protest journo busted
The Russian journalist who stormed the set of her own newscast to protest the invasion of Ukraine in the early weeks of the war is now facing criminal charges for another protest.
Marina Ovsyannikova, who was fined 30,000 rubles in March for the televised act of civil disobedience, has been detained and charged with spreading false information about Russia’s armed forces, her lawyer, Dmitry Zakhvatov, said in a Telegram post Wednesday.
Ovsyannikova’s home was also reportedly raided by police Wednesday.
The charges stem from a public protest last month in which she held a banner that read, “[Russian President Vladimir] Putin is a killer, his soldiers are fascists. 352 children have been killed [in Ukraine]. How many more children should die for you to stop?”
Zakhvatov said she would likely be held overnight by police.
In March, Ovsyannikova, a producer for Russia’s state-run Channel One, ran onto the set of a live newscast holding a sign that read “Stop the war. Don’t believe propaganda. They’re lying to you.”
After leaving Russia in April to be a correspondent for German media outlet Welt, Ovsyannikova returned in early July, writing on Facebook that she was forced to come back to defend her parental rights in court against her husband.
Ovsyannikova has been fined twice in recent weeks under Russia’s draconian anti-protest laws — once for a statement posted to Facebook, and once for a statement made at a court hearing for an opposition political figure. In both instances, officials allege the journalist spread false information about the Russian military.
Also Wednesday, Russian authorities fined the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which has been critical of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, 350,000 rubles for allegedly “abusing the freedom of mass information.”