Liberal media outlets are under pressure in Russia
Two leading Russian liberal media outlets, TV channels Dozhd (Rain) and Ekho Moskvy, are under pressure from Russian authorities. The Prosecutor General's Office will again investigate the TV channel Dozhd at the request of the Russian Anti-maidan
Two leading Russian liberal media outlets, TV channels Dozhd (Rain) and Ekho Moskvy, are under pressure from Russian authorities. The Prosecutor General's Office will again investigate the TV channel Dozhd at the request of the Russian Anti-maidan movement (a short term gathering of activists supporting the previous Ukrainian government and the Party of Regions during the course of the Euromaidan movement in Ukraine).
On its website Anti-maidan movement claimed that there are no indications, in about 30 documents on the channel’s site, that the so-called Islamic state is banned in Russia. “This is a direct violation of the law ‘On countering extremist activity’ and corresponds to the content of part 2 of article 13.15 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation (abuse of freedom of mass information),” states the Anti-maidan document.
This is not the first investigation of Dozhd. In early December last year, at the request of unknown citizens, the Russian Prosecutor General ordered an investigation into the compliance of Dozhd Channel with the Russian legislation on combating extremism and the procedures of employment contracts and licensing. In September 2015, the Deputy of the State Duma from the United Russia party and the leader of Rodina (Motherland-National Patriotic Union), Alexey Zhuravlev, appeared in front of the Prosecutor with a request to check the legal compliance of the TV channel Dozhd and the validity of its license.
The chief editor of Ekho Moskvy, Vitaliy Ruvinskiy, was summoned for interrogation by the FSB (Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation) after the Security Service seized his correspondence with publicist Andrei Piontkovsky. The chief editor of the radio station Ekho Moskvy, Alexei Venediktov, tweeted this news.
Earlier it was reported that the Head of Head of the Parliamentary Committee for Security and Anti-Corruption, Irina Yarovaya, sent a request to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation pointing out to traces of extremism in Andrei Piontkovsky’s article about Chechnya, “Bomb ready to explode,” published in January on Ekho Moskvy's website.
In the last two paragraphs of the article, Piontkovsky urged to remove the Chechen Republic from the Russian Federation. This, in his opinion, could prevent potential conflict. He removed these comments later.
On several occasions the Russia Intelligence Agencies examined the articles of Andrei Piontkovsky. Piontkovsky also received multiple threats, prompting him to leave Russia.