There is no one to turn on the light

On January 12, I was summoned to Roskomnadzor to Moscow School Street, to be present when drawing up protocols that record a violation of the order on the procedure for marking journalistic materials of the media - "Foreign Agent". Violations in the work of nine sites of media corporation Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty were discovered by the General Director of the Federal News Agency Yevgeny Zubarev, he was not too lazy to write complaints where he should. From January 12 to May 11, Roskomnadzor wrote out 520 protocols, the 423rd judicial site and the Tverskaya District Court for four months have been working for four and new fines for all these documents. The total debt will eventually be pulled under 200 million rubles, but if Yevgeny Zubarev or another volunteer suddenly suddenly tried, then the amount can increase many times, almost to infinity.

It went far: Roskomnadzor threatens to block the sites of "Freedom", hundreds of our appeals in the courts of first instance have already been rejected; There is no doubt that everyone else will be rejected. RSE/RS filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights, but when will it be considered? For the first dozens of fines, the payment deadlines have already expired, and the Moscow Bureau of Radio Liberty visited the bailiffs twice , and the bank accounts are blocked, and the Federal Service for Labor and Employment (the allegedly “information was alarmed by the press”) is interested in whether there are no payments on salary, and I, as the head of the LLC media corporations in Russia, more and more and more and more than more The criminal case, or even two, is clearly “shining”.

Nice young women work in Roskomnadzor, who, according to the Russian bureaucratic tradition, seem to be a complete name and patronymic. Ekaterina Sergeevna, just starting a career for identifying violations in the media, cheerfully draws up protocols. She is in a hurry to manage for dinner, no, no, and her girlfriends look into the office, she is already sipping along the corridor from the kitchen microwave. Asia Unirovna, the chief of Ekaterina Sergeevna, behaves emphasized busily, but quite friendly, so she called me a "colleague." In fact, I do not find anything in common in our professions-I am a journalist, and Asia Unirovna is a political censor, but I prudently silent: both ladies with zeal, although without visible pleasure, do their office work, they perform an indication from above, and do not discuss it with them. I’m not sure that Asia Unirovna and Ekaterina Sergeevna heard about Hannah Arendt and theses of the “banality of evil” , but even if they heard, they will probably not apply this political concept, otherwise they would not be employed to where they serve. They say: "Foreign agent", then everything is clear.

I am the time on a low sofa by the window and I think that in Russian legal practice, it seems, the positivist theory is the upper hand. This is when the parliament obedient to any will adopt laws in the interests of political expediency, as the authorities understand it, and not according to the spirit of justice and norms of law. The most disgusting example of such a rape of jurisprudence is the Nuremberg racial laws of 1935, which created the base for the "final solution" of the Jewish question. Millions of innocent, as you know, were shot and sent to gas chambers according to the law, ardently supported by parliament.

The appeal claims that Radio Liberty lawyers in these weeks send in packs to Tverskaya district, to the Moscow city (and then the supreme) courts, of course, do not contain any historical excursions. The lawsuits explain in detail the reasons why the order of Roskomnadzor, which makes the editorial office pull on the Shutovsky cap on themselves and put the stigma of the enemy of the people (on the network "foreign" marking is evaluated in different ways), is legally insignificant and should be canceled. The order of Roskomnadzor, said in lawsuits, contradicts the Constitution of Russia, the right to freely disseminate information and for free access to information, contradicts the media law, violates the rules of honest competition in the media market, and creates a biased negative attitude to Radio Liberty. I will also add professional: the order is an interference with the work of journalists and prevents the spread of our materials. Tell me, who will wait for Yetube until the 15-second titer ends with the inscription about "foreign agents" to finally watch the video? Check out the twitter or telegram-accounts of "Medusa" and VTIMES- colleagues who follow this order, you can sympathize.

Journalism is not a crime, it is our right and obligation to engage in our work

Can we sympathize with us, "freedom"? Our Moscow Bureau, opened shortly after the failure of the 1991 coup , is on the verge of arrest. Exactly three decades have passed, the history of Russian liberalism seems to close a full circle. Our sites, the popularity of which over the past two years has doubled (is this not one of the reasons for persecution?), On the verge of blocking. Our journalists in Russia are at risk of getting into the list of "foreign agents" as individuals, and three have already landed under a skating rink . We were forced to translate some video projects to Prague, where the headquarters of the RSE/RS was located, and in Kyiv, where a couple of years ago the media corporation equipped the technically advanced bureau.

Journalism is not a crime. This is the right and the obligation to engage in your work: to honestly inform about what is happening in the country and the world. As one prominent state husband told me for a long time: this is the obligation to “light the light in the dark room”, but I will also add, and freedom cannot be dependent on any government, journalists should not have nationality in this regard. Therefore, Ekaterina Sergeevna and Asia Unirovna, Maria Vladimirovna and Dmitry Sergeyevich, we are not “foreign agents”: a ban on the intervention of American and any other politicians in editorial affairs is the basis for the independent existence of “freedom”, and this ban on my long memory of work in the Russian service was not violated. There were mistakes, unsuccessful texts came across, stupid things happened, it happened that it was not lucky with management or circumstances. Anyone happened as in any work. But in fact, the radio station invariably corresponded to its name. This is precisely the State Duma and Roskomnadzor with the help of the Tver district court and Evgeny Zubarev are unceremoniously trying to intervene in our editorial affairs.

The question of sympathy for journalists "Freedom" is actually wrong. It is necessary to condole the desperate situation in which Russia has been in the last decade due to the behavior of the Kremlin in the international arena. Empter is worth the lawlessness, in which, by the grace of Putin, the authorities found themselves frightened by police batons or fanned by the Kremlin TV, Russian citizens who are deprived of the rights of political choice, freedom of speech, will and meetings.

It may happen that soon in this "dark room" there will be absolutely no one to turn on the light. Radio Liberty, albeit with some losses, will be worth it, we are not going to leave from Moscow, although we are persistently squeezed out and pushed out, and, in any case, we will find the way to our audience. "Freedom" will exist - so far what we do is important and interesting for our readers, spectators and listeners. So, if you want to help, stay with us, over all the barriers and contrary to all unrighteous orders.

Andrey Shary - Journalist of Radio Liberty, Director of the Russian Service

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