A Russian journalist who protested against the invasion of Ukraine was arrested by the country’s police by holding up a banner during a live TV broadcast, her lawyer has disclosed.
Ukrainian-born Marina Ovsyannikova, 43, who has been called the “braveest women on television,” was detained by Russian police on Sunday and her location is unknown.
The mother of two famously rebelled against Putinby interrupting a live broadcast holding a sign that reads: ‘No to war, stop this war – propaganda lies to you’.
She was arrested and fined after shocking viewers of Russia’s state brainwashing body Channel One by jumping in front of the camera with a large sign and yelling an anti-war slogan.
In a message to the journalist’s Telegram account, her entourage said: “Marina has been arrested. There is no information on where she is.’
Ukraine-born Marina Ovsyannikova, 43, the ‘bravest women on television’, was detained by Russian police on Sunday and her location is unknown
The mother of two famously rebelled against Putin’s propaganda machine by interrupting a live broadcast while holding a sign that read: ‘No to war, stop this war – propaganda lies to you’
In April, she was hired by the German media company Welt as a ‘freelance correspondent’ to report for the newspaper Welt and for Welt’s TV news channel, including from Ukraine and Russia.
Welt is the respected flagship of the publishing house Axel Springer, with a daily circulation in Germany of about 180,000 and most closely resembles The Daily Telegraph.
Welt Group editor-in-chief Ulf Porschardt said he was delighted to be working with Ovsyannikova, adding that her on-air protest “defended key journalistic ethics – despite the threat of state repression.”
“At a crucial moment, Marina Ovsyannikova had the courage to confront Russian viewers with an unadorned view of reality,” he continues.
Ovsyannikova made international headlines when she stormed a live broadcast on the state news station where she was a senior producer, yelling, “They’re lying to you.”
The broadcast soon moved into another segment, and Ovsyannikova was detained and arrested.
She disappeared for several days and the worst was feared for her, as the Russian parliament had just passed a new law punishing journalists with 15 years in prison if they did not follow the Kremlin’s lead.
Marina Ovzyannikova with her lawyer Anton Gashinsky at the hearing for her case after she was detained and arrested for her aerial protest, in which she was eventually fined £227.
Through this law, Putin has heavily armed independent media outlets to refer to a “special military operation” rather than a “war” or “invasion” and deny mass casualties.
In the end, she was fined just £227 by a Russian court – just a fraction of the expected retaliation, sparking a number of theories about the true nature of her protest.
Some of those theories range from Ovsyannikova as a Kremlin plant to her being a “British espionage” according to the head of news at Channel One.
Ovsyannikova has remained in Russia after her arrest and fine, and appeared to have evaded the state’s worst retaliation, but she told Reuters last month she was concerned for her safety and hoped her protest would open the Russians’ eyes to propaganda. .
She continued to describe a “special operation” in Ukraine as a war and invasion, at the risk of further anger and a possible 15-year prison sentence.
Some of those theories range from Ovsyannikova as a Kremlin plant to her being a “British espionage” according to the head of news at Channel One. In the photo: Russian President Vladimir Putin
In her first report to her new employers earlier this year, she spoke of the minor persecution she has faced since the protest.
Her swimming pool membership was revoked, a pet store refused to give her dog food, and she found her car with all four tires deflated and a dead battery.
During an interview with US media, the 43-year-old journalist also said he had rejected French President Emmanuel Macron’s asylum offer because “she is a patriot” and wants to live in Russia.
“I want to say to everyone that the Russian people are really against the war,” Ovsyannikova told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week. “It’s Putin’s war, not the Russian people’s war.”
‘[It] was a spontaneous decision for me to go live on air, but the dissatisfaction with the current situation has been building up for many years as the propaganda on our state channels became more and more distorted,” she added.
Her status as a senior television editor at the Channel One station meant she was able to access the broadcasting center to make her protest.
“I came to work and after a week of reporting this situation, the atmosphere on the first channel was so unpleasant that I realized I couldn’t go back there.”
Ovsyannikova said she was thinking about helping an anti-war protest in Moscow Square — likely referring to the city’s Red Square — but quickly realized that captivity would be “pretty useless.”
“I decided maybe I could do something else, something more meaningful where I could draw more attention and show the rest of the world that Russians are against the war,” she said on Sunday.
“I could show the Russian people that this is just propaganda, expose this propaganda for what it is and maybe encourage some people to speak out against the war and hope my action would help people change their minds.” she added.