Leonidov day

Independent media will boycott the Duma due to sexual harassment

The elections passed, and the deputies saw in this permission to grab journalists for the pubis. On March 21, the State Duma Commission on ethics considered the complaints of journalists of the parliamentary pool of harassment by the head of the Committee on International Affairs and the deputy from the LDPR Leonid Slutsky and did not find anything like that in his actions. The accusations by journalists were qualified by the Duma moralists as unfounded, and in addition, they were called the election order. “The commission does not see violations by Leonid Slutsky by behavioral norms,” said the chief Duma specialist in morality of Otari Arshba following a meeting.

So the parliamentary sexual revolution was established: the State Duma is now a place where it is officially possible.

The story could end on this, since the deputies acted quite predictably. In full accordance with its reputation that has developed over the past ten years. Of course, there was a weak hope that at least women in the ethics commission will express a special opinion and at least some discussion about the appearance of a colleague of Slutsky will unfold in the Duma. But the discussion, as it was still from Boris Gryzlov, turned out to be parliamentarians. Without it, they know how a decent deputy should behave, where the enemies-journalists and where the order on the eve of the election. Irina Rodnina only managed to report that “they are not a judge”, and also asked the journalists whether Slutsky “their annoying behavior” caused such a reaction.

But the story did not end. In response to the decision of the ethics commission, RBC holding, which in the Duma worked about ten correspondents representing different editions, announced their review. Elizaveta Golikova, a team leader of the Joint Edition of RBC, said the ethics commission recognized the permissibility of sexual harassment to journalists by Newsmakers. The holding’s decision to stop working in the Duma is connected with the refusal to consider such an approach normal.

The boycott of the Duma by the largest private media holding provoked an unprecedented campaign of journalistic solidarity in recent years.

The second statement was made by Kommersant Publishing House, which did not refuse to work in the Duma as a whole, but stopped cooperation with the ethics commission and with Slutsky personally. Then, the Rain and Echo of Moscow, referring to the fact that work in the Duma is dangerous for journalists, announced their solidarity with colleagues. The website Republic.ru, which is part of the rain holding, will supply its news about the activities of the Duma of special footnot: “The Russian authorities, justifying sexual harassment”. By dinner on March 22, most professional Russian media announced their readiness to protect their journalists from deputies.

In the meantime, in the meantime, they also did not sit idle. Having received news from RBC, and then other media, moral specialists developed a revenge plan. On the morning of March 22, several journalists of the parliamentary pool reported that the FSO officers, upon passing to the State Duma, were checked by their surnames with a certain list - representatives of rebellious editorial offices were not allowed into the building, despite the existing accreditation. The speaker of the parliament Vyacheslav Volodin announced the suspension of accreditation in the Duma for media correspondents participating in the boycott. It seems that this is how the deputies decided to teach negligent journalists who think too much about themselves and are not ready to provide their pubis at the disposal of the people's chosen ones.

Russian parliamentarians are accustomed to communicate with representatives of servile media, who ask only convenient questions. They began to consider journalists as a special kind of service personnel existing in power for its amusement. Slutsky and his colleagues consider journalists to be their serfs, which, if necessary, can be used as sexual objects, or, perhaps, flog on the stables for the offenses.

The only way to stop this and protect colleagues from such newcomers is to ignore them altogether.

On March 22, 2018, the Russian media were divided into two unequal parts. Most - those who work in propaganda - apparently do not against good flogging from the master. The rest made the only possible choice. In the solidarity of journalists against rudeness of deputies, by the way, there is much more political meaning than in all statements of the Committee on International Affairs.

The New Gazeta joins the boycott of Leonid Slutsky, the Duma Ethics Commission and the Committee on International Affairs. The policy department recalls the correspondent accredited in the Duma.