The Meshchansky District Court of Moscow ruled that the ex-employee “Channel One” Marina Ovsyannikova must pay 50,000 rubles in an administrative case on “discrediting the RF Armed Forces.” The verdict was delivered on Thursday, July 28.
“The absurd trial ended with an equally absurd decision. The judge decided that my words in defense Ilya Yashin represented a special public danger,” Ovsyannikova noted, adding that “the maximum fine under this article” was imposed.
The case is related to an interview with Ovsyannikova on July 13 in front of the Basmanny District Court, which arrested opposition leader Ilya Yashin. In a conversation with journalists, the ex-employee of the channel said that “war is the most terrible crime of the 21st century.”
Picket in front of the Kremlin
Later, on July 15, Ovsyannikova went to an anti-war picket in front of the Kremlin with a banner that read, among other things, “Putin is a murderer.” During the action on the Sofiyskaya embankment of the Moskva River, she was not detained.
Marina Ovsyannikova detained on July 17 and soon released after drawing up the administrative protocol.
In mid-March, Ovsyannikova, while still working as an evening news editor on Channel One, entered the live frame with a poster “No war. Stop the war. Do not believe the propaganda. They lie to you here. Russians against war.” Before that, she recorded a video message: “What is happening now in Ukraine is a crime. Russia is an aggressor country, and only one person is responsible for this aggression. This person is Vladimir Putin.” As a result, Ovsyannikova was sentenced to a fine of 30,000 rubles under the administrative article “on violation of the established procedure for holding a rally” – because of the video recorded before the action.
Returned to Russia
In early April, Berlin-based media concern Axel Springer announced that Ovsyannikova had been hired by the German news channel Welt. In three months contract endedand she returned to Russia. Ovsyannikovawhich won the German “Media Prize for Freedom” (“Freiheitspreis der Medien”), ultimately decided not to present the award.
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Author: Sabrina Pabst, Grigory Arosev
