Force Force Circumstances

TJournal editor-in-chief tells two stories banned from publication

Sometimes depressing stories happen in journalistic work: your source first tells you very interesting inside information, and then, under the pressure of various circumstances, retracts his words. Usually the culprit is the pressure of more influential forces trying to plug up the “leak,” and the insider trying to convey the truth and the journalist greedy for a sensation are left with nothing: the first is forced to obey, and the second simply has no one to refer to.

The editor-in-chief of TJournal recalls two such stories that happened to him over the past few weeks. All characters are not fictional, and the coincidences are not accidental.

Before Mordornadzor’s sensational statement about the possible blocking of Western social networks and the reinforced words about the inclusion of brains from one of the former presidents had died down, an unexpected letter appeared in our editorial email inbox from the organizer of a major Russian industry conference. A source at the organizing company complained that their main speaker, a top manager of one of the largest Western Internet projects™, unexpectedly refused to speak just days before the event, undermining the expectations of the audience who paid to attend his lecture.

The wording of the refusal in the letter provided by the speaker himself was absolutely enchanting: supposedly the management of his company was frightened by Mordornadzor’s statements and was afraid to send their employees to Russia, believing that they would be interrogated there by Kremlin agents.

I immediately realized what a sensation I had just witnessed.

One of the largest Western Internet projects™, always trying to distance itself from politics, prohibits its employee from going to Russia due to the political situation, and this situation is caused by statements of Russian government officials. This is an acute reaction that can, at a minimum, lead to a series of layoffs and expose the company’s hidden position, and at a maximum, provoke a major international scandal. And all this just ended up in my mailbox.

I decided not to rush into publication and began to check this information. Just in case, I asked permission from the speaker whether it was possible to use his statement and what it sounded like verbatim. And then it began.

It turned out that ethics prevented the source from providing a copy of the received letter, although it just did not prevent him from sending resonant information directly to the media. Then it turned out that the speaker did not want his words to “leak” out - he just didn’t warn about it right away. Naturally, the source immediately retracted his original statement - the risks were too great.

I turned to the company’s press service with a request to comment on the information about the cancellation of the speech of its top manager. I did not receive a response to my letter, but my source said that the company had to issue an official press release due to a sudden request from Russian journalists. Of course, in the official formulation of one of the largest Western projects™ there was not a word about fears of interrogations by the FSB: “irresistible circumstances” were to blame.

Another source at the company told me that their management could not cancel a lecture by an employee in Russia due to the risk of interrogation, since some employees quietly continue to speak at other conferences. But while the real story behind the strange sensational statement remains a mystery, the conference organizers apologize to their delegates.

More eloquent than all the others is the fact that on the same day one of the largest Western projects began to cooperate with Mordornadzor.

My husband will scold me

Another story happened almost out of the blue. Out of the blue, one of the Russian socio-political online media suddenly unearthed a strange story: supposedly another one of the largest Internet projects™ censored a photo of a cute pet against the background of a portrait of one of the Russian presidents.

As is customary in this media, the meager fact sheet was generously supplied with eloquent accusations of the rotten West, but the main conclusion was different: a previously considered neutral Internet project suddenly demonstrated political censorship, preventing the president, a well-known defender of animals, from shining in too positive a light.

We at the editorial office looked at this news, sighed sadly and turned a deaf ear to it, knowing the nature of this media outlet, but a few days later it surfaced on the website of a major TV channel. Everything began to suspiciously resemble an impending campaign to close another of the largest Internet projects™ in Russia, I became worried and sent a letter to the press service asking for an explanation for the removal of the photo.

A few days later, the answer came: “The administration of another one of the largest Internet projects™ did not delete this photo.” It was then that it smelled of something fried.

I was lucky: I immediately managed to contact the author of the deleted photo, who turned out to be a woman living far beyond the borders of our vast Motherland and not even speaking Russian. It turned out that she was aware of the publications of our media, but they all turned what happened upside down.

She was asked to place a photograph of her pet against the background of a portrait of one of the presidents by a certain Russian fund for animal welfare, allegedly deciding in this way to raise money from donations. The owner of the popular animal's account agreed to help with PR and took a photo, but the political overtones began to cause too many negative comments, and her friend, who also had access to the account, deleted the post with the photo.

According to her, the online media acted treacherously: it published the story not only without her permission and without asking her about the true reasons for what happened, but it distorted the facts and involved a harmless animal in a political game. The site’s editors did not respond to her requests, which plunged her into despair.

The woman agreed to tell us the real story of the deletion of the photo, making a promise that we would write the truth and correct the situation with the slandered animal and the Internet project™. She began to initiate correspondence with SMM managers and representatives of a charitable foundation, asking permission to quote their letters, but her husband intervened in the matter. He was furious to learn that his wife might once again be the subject of bad news, and forced her to back down and take back everything she had said.

Time passes, but things are still there: another of the largest Internet projects™ remains unwashed from fabricated charges, and a woman from a distant country is worried about an unfair situation, but cannot do anything because of her aggressive husband.

Only the poor animal silently chews its biofeed and doesn’t think about anything.

I bring retribution in the name of the moon,
Nikita Likhachev,
TJournal

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