Continuation of freedom

The Russian tax service appealed to the Moscow Arbitration Court demanding the forced bankruptcy of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty LLC (read, Moscow Bureau of Freedom), and there is no doubt about which verdict will be issued in this claim. According to the Russian authorities, the LLC owed the state 13 or 15 million dollars, I even went astray. The debt was formed by 1040 (!) Non -paid fines, they were written out for refusing to accompany journalistic materials with a mention that we are a “foreign agent”. They could write out 10 times more, for this there is Roskomnadzor. But we are not an agent, but the requirements of "marke" was considered and considered censorship, an attempt to interfere with the editorial policy.

Our Moscow Bureau, alas, turns into an empty legal formality, but "freedom" does not disappear anywhere. The liquidation of the LLC right now, and not earlier and no later - the political decision of the authorities, adopted due to Russian aggression against Ukraine. We call this war “war”, and not “a special operation in the Donbass”, contrary to the command of the Ministry of Defense. We call one simple reason: journalism requires an accurate and honest definition of things, concepts and phenomena.

Whatever happens next - stay with us!

The tax was moved against us to battle in order to reinforce the fresh Putin's law on criminal liability for supposedly false, but actually truthful, information on the use of the Armed Forces, which the authorities now use as occupiers of a neighboring country. This law has already slammed that little alive that remained in domestic journalism, he slammed the Moscow corps and corsets of many foreign information agencies, newspapers, and television channels. No one is ready to risk the safety of employees working in Russia, and we also think about how to protect our own. Freedom correspondents are still as it gets: because they are doing their job, they are detained and dragged to the police, they are intimidated, administrative proceedings are launched against them, they are recorded in “foreign agents”, and now they are going to put them behind bars. As a result, we will have to talk about the war from abroad, using including sources of information from Russia. But this does not mean that we will stop telling the truth.

I began cooperation with "Freedom" exactly 30 years ago. In the spring of 1992, Moscow was actively preparing for the opening of the radio station, and experienced Mudrey journalists in the Munich Corridors of the RSE/RS were worried if the editorial story would soon end in connection with the disappearance of the Soviet threat. The fears were unreasonable: the threat to the world from Russia did not disappear, over the past two decades, it grew gradually and now came to all of us, and of course, not only to journalists. The threat came to everyone in the country and beyond, in a frighteningly terrible appearance. Moreover, Putin’s attack threatens with the loss of freedom and future not only to those who have clear vision, but also to those who have a Kremlin television who crashed their eyes and mind.

Is everything that happened-the liquidation of "Echo of Moscow" and "Rain", blocking the sites "Medusa", the BBC and "Freedom", the closure of a dozen other independent editions, the disconnection of Facebook and Twitter-the defeat of freedom of speech and the democracy itself in Russia? Undoubtedly, and otherwise you can’t call this defeat as a difficult. But does it mean that we have reached the end of the path? No, in any case. Freedom and "freedom" continue. The Russian service has been working for almost 70 years, everything has happened, and we believe me, and in new circumstances we will be able to talk sensibly and truthfully to you about how things really are in the country and the world. We always work on top of the barriers, “Freedom” in the old days has accumulated vast experience on this score, and it is not forgotten. Whatever happens next - stay with us!

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