Home » “They want to gag us because more and more Russians prefer independent journalism to propaganda”

“They want to gag us because more and more Russians prefer independent journalism to propaganda”

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Aleksey Kovalyov, what’s going on?

“They attack us because more and more people prefer independent journalism”

Given the situation, are you afraid that Meduza will close?

“The odds are much higher now, and not just because the money’s out. Most of our reporters are in Moscow, and of course for us, for those in Moscow, the risks have grown considerably. We journalists have not automatically become foreign agents, but each of us could be declared as such at any time ».

Just because you work for Meduza?

«Exactly, because we receive the salary from a ‘foreign agent’. There are already sources who refuse to collaborate with us, to give us information ».

Can this mandatory message at the beginning of each article in which you specify that the newspaper is a “foreign agent” reduce the number of readers?

“Sure. These measures were invented for this. They are specially made to make our edition illegible. On the one hand it is impossible to carry out these requests without causing harm to oneself and on the other hand to ignore them without running the risk of being prosecuted ».

In your opinion, at what level was the decision taken to include Meduza in the list of media “foreign agents”?

“Certainly at the highest level. It is clear that such decisions are made only at the top. Meduza is very popular, our numbers are comparable with those of the Russian edition of Russia Today (a well-known pro-Kremlin newspaper, ed). We are competitors for them, a danger, because more and more people prefer independent journalism to state propaganda. So this is also one of the reasons why this attack is underway ».

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But why right now? Is there a link with the current repression of dissent?

“Sure. All this is part of this trend, of this chain of events of which the measures against the organizations of Alexey Navalny (Putin’s main rival now in prison for reasons that many consider political, ed). What is happening in Meduza is not an isolated case. In April, independent journalists were subjected to searches and detentions. If this happened only for Meduza it could be assumed that we wrote an article that Putin’s entourage did not like, but if we look at the general context we see that the characters in the Kremlin have decided that we must crush any freedom of thought in which they see. a direct threat to their power and certainly independent journalism is high on the list of these threats. Probably at some point the situation will become so unbearable that I too will have to leave Russia as many politicians, activists and colleagues have already done. But as long as possible I would prefer to stay, because this phase of Russian history is very important and someone has to describe it, because it is very likely that in a few months or years in Russia there will be no independent media ».

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