Russian state television gets YouTube to block Navalny's broadcast of Putin's press conference because the video includes a question from one of its reporters

The Russian state-owned television network Pervyi Kanal got YouTube to block Alexey Navalny’s archived live broadcast of Vladimir Putin’s end-of-the-year press conference, which aired on Navalny Live! on December 20 with simultaneous commentary from policy experts on Navalny’s team. The Russian broadcaster reportedly argued that it owns the exclusive rights to the face and voice of anchor Marina Kim, who appeared briefly in the broadcast, when she asked President Putin a question during the four-hour event. (Her question occurs at 3 hours, 21 minutes, 55 seconds into Navalny's broadcast.)

“I think YouTube will unblock everything, of course. We officially paid for the broadcasting rights, after all,” Navalny explained on Telegram, adding, “But it’s still amusing that they’re so nervous about a simple broadcast with commentary and they’re inventing ways to ban everything.”

Update: Pervyi Kanal later announced that it quickly withdrew its complaint against Navalny Live! explaining to the website TJournal that the contractor it pays to monitor YouTube for pirated feeds overzealously filed claims against several legitimate YouTube broadcasts of Putin's December 20 press conference. The network says major outlets like Dozhd, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Life, Sputnik, Rossiya 24, TASS, RIA Novosti, and RT were also affected, as well (though only Navalny's channel reported any blocked content). According to Pervyi Kanal, Navalny's archived broadcast was inaccessible in Russia for just two hours on Friday morning.