The Saratov Online Information "Free News", or simply "Free", for 12 years of work is used to being a white broth against the backdrop of propaganda media. They are the only ones who openly criticize the former vice-governor of the region, and now the speaker of the State Duma Volodin and is still trying to write the truth in conditions of censorship. After the beginning, their officials and colleagues began to accuse them of "inciting hatred." So far, some complain that the journalists were “not yet diverted”, others consider the publication not opposition. Since the Roskomnadzor has blocked the “Free” website in April , the problems have increased. And on July 23, the worst forecasts of the editorial office came true: RKN appealed to the Supreme Court for deprivation of their license of the media due to the lack of labeling of foreign agents in publications. “Such things” tell how one of the few independent media that remained in the Russian province works and survives and survives

This is a text from a cycle of materials about journalists working in Russia in 2024.

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The editors occupy a four -story building in the city center. Only 15 employees work in it, the main backbone for many years. “Free” long and firmly settled in the top 5 of the most cited media of the region in the “Mediaology” rating. And this is in the city of the millionaire, where 80% of publications directly or indirectly belongs to united Russia.

At half -week morning, the news department of the Free in full force in the office. One of the newsletters in place from seven. Outside the door with the NEUSRUM sign - most employees.

Maria Aleksashina at work in the editorial office: Ekaterina Bulycheva for TD

A huge poster with a portrait of journalist Anna Politkovskaya is hanging over the table of the deputy editor -in -chief of Maria Aleksashina - the first testimony test for interns. A few years ago, a local human rights activist brought him to the responsible storage. After his death, Masha decided that the poster was best stored on the wall in a detailed form.

She does not take her eyes off the monitor and does not tear her hands away from the mouse. The hair is collected in a bundle; Jeans, sneakers, several bottles of water on the table - in Saratov +40. Near the computer is a city phone tube. InfoPovs and news from those who are used to calling the editor are flowing to it.

As amended by "Free News" photo: Ekaterina Bulycheva for TD

“Recently sat up until 10 pm, the phone calls. I wiped off the phone. - Masha parodies a male voice: “Well, tell me, why were you blocked?” I put the phone only when I managed to convince it: yes we do not know! ”

* * *

Three weeks after blocking, the editorial office of the Free Created a new site. Without a hyphen in the address bar. And she began to work from scratch - 12 years behind her shoulders. Any redirect to the old site would mean a “mirror” and a new blocking

Left and right: in the editorial office of Free News. In the center: Elena Ivanova, editor-in-chief of the Online Information "Free News" Photo: Ekaterina Bulycheva for TD

The first news that journalists released after the “rebirth” were May frosts, Gazprom losses and a rally of eggs on Easter.

"Territory of extinction"

Today is exactly two months, the editors work on the new site. According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, four drones were shot down during the night, but the news feed “Free” does not begin with them.

“Not twenty,” the duty officers argue on the tape. Single arrivals without destruction and without victims do not surprise anyone.

Journalists begin the news day with a “branded” note about the “territory of extinction”. According to Rosstat, the Saratov region has become the sixth in Russia by absolute decline in the population.

Elena and Matvey are discussed by working issues: Ekaterina Bulycheva for TD

“This is some strange common work to prove that the Saratov region is dying,” Masha explains. - Historically, several journalists - not only ours, but also other publications - began to consider this absolute decline, starting from the data of Rosstat. And for quite some time the Saratov region was in the first place, so the term “territory of extinction” has developed. So he is behind us. ”

The next news is that the Saratov deputy suggested popularizing IT specialists among Sv fighters. Nobody discusses her.

Masha is distracted from the tape to answer the call from the city phone. The press service of the governor invites journalists “Free” to the event: the State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, who is from the region, once again comes to Saratov .

On the left: the tablet on the door of the editorial office "Do not lie and not steal." In the center: Matvey flask at the desktop in the editorial office. Right: Old issues of newspapers "Newspaper Week in Saratov" Photo: Ekaterina Bulycheva for TD

“We will soon have a bipolar. - Masha is tired of the whiskey. - We are a blocked media, and we, in fact, are not. But we continue to send press releases and call for all official events. ”

After a telephone conversation with the press service of the governor, Masha is distracted from the agenda. It puts the “fish” for two weeks in advance on the old version of the site - a message that Roskomnadzor (RKN) continues to block the site of “Free News”.

Don`t Worry, Be Happy

The last few lines in the "barn book" of the editorial office - as in the "Free" they call a paper journal with requests - are addressed to Roskomnadzor.

After blocking the publication, the journalists several times asked the department to explain: for what? They wrote Reedzes, left appeals on the site, but they never received a specific answer from Roskomnadzor or from the General Prosecutor's Office.

The letter of the RKN says extensively: "For repeated placement of illegal information."

Live broadcast in the editorial office of Free News Photo: Ekaterina Bulycheva for TD

“They indicated an article by the law in which, conditionally, 25 points-from how to“ skip the army ”to LGBT propaganda. On the hotline of the RKN, they didn’t answer us either - we listened to the song Donat Worry, Be Happy. It seems that this is all that remains for us, ”the deputy head of the“ free ”jokes.

The only thing the journalists know: he blocked the federal, not local Roskomnadzor.

“Our digital gulag works technically remarkably, the human factor is excluded,” Masha continues. - In the local Roskomnadzor, they admitted that he was in shock, the Minister of Digital Development of the region wrote to us: “What happened?” In a chat with colleagues, other media wrote to us: “Well, what did you want?” Then, of course, everyone asked what and what will happen next. ”

Journal with editorial queries: Ekaterina Bulycheva for TD

In the early days, many were sure that this was a mistake and the “free” were about to unlock.

“We tried so hard to follow the rules of this dishonest game that everyone has the feeling that this [blocking] would not happen. We blew on the water where it is necessary and where it is not necessary, ”explains the deputy head of the publication. - Our lock scared all colleagues very much: everyone began to check themselves, for which they could cover them. Yes, for anything. "

No more than one deceased

Shortly before the blocking, in December 2023, the first bell rang for the editorial office. The military prosecutor’s office sent a request to delete the list of those killed from the region, which journalists were led on the site from the first days of her - this information, as follows from the letter, relate to Gostaine.

“We understood that we were not violating anything: if we have no access to Gostine, how can we disclose it? But still, they were very scared, and our colleagues too: the deadlines are for decades, ”Masha continues. “This was the first such ban: none of the regional media did not conduct such lists, although many write about the dead separately.”

Elena and Dmitry in the office of editors: Ekaterina Bulycheva for TD

The list with surnames, the editorial office deleted. The page of the list -empty, but with the previous heading and an appointment about the ban on the military prosecutor's office-can still be found on the old site.

Separate news about the dead “Free” continue to be published on a new site-according to data from press releases of heads of districts or other officials. The military prosecutor's office never answered, it is a violation or only the systematization of data is considered to be such.

It was more than once to delete publications due to the release of new laws. In 2023, after the NGOs and the media began to be recognized as undesirable one after another, the journalists created the Deliter chat [from Delete].

Poster with the name of the site of the Online Information "Free News" Photo: Ekaterina Bulycheva for TD

Many publications with references to the FBK - for example, about the cooperative of Pine in the suburbs, in which the journalists found the chic cottage Volodin - had to be removed. The editors also turned on the auto -manifestation of comments in their social networks - primarily out of fear for the safety of those who write them.

12 years without slavery

The Free News news agency belongs to the businessman’s media holding and politician Arkady Evstafyev - Energy Publishing House. Evstafyev in the past - an employee of the KGB and the USSR Foreign Ministry, worked with Anatoly Chubais and Boris Yeltsin, represented the interests of Mikhail Prokhorov. He has several types of business, including the Energy Union Investcholding and the Togliatti Transformer energy company.

"Free News" appeared in 2012. Evstafyev launched them as an independent publication: at that time his “newspaper of the week” was already released in Saratov. Now it is released only once a year - in order to maintain a license of the media.

Over the 12 years of work, journalists “Free” have experienced a lot. Broken cameras in polling stations, prosecutor’s checks, calls to employees for interrogations and arrests of guests live. In 2018, the former head of Navalny’s headquarters in Saratov, Mikhail Murygin, gave interviews to the journalists “free” after the rally “he is not a king for us”. Right during the broadcast, six police officers came to the editorial office, two with machine guns. The “crust” was with him only with the driver, he officially detained Murygin.

On the left: direct broadcasting in the studio of the editorial office of "Free News". In the center and right: in the editorial office of "Free News" photo: Ekaterina Bulycheva for TD

The editors asked law enforcement officers to hold police officers accountable for the obstruction of the media. The police, in turn, demanded to punish the editorial office for disobedience to the requirements of the police. But this story did not end anything.

Today, journalists of the publication are still the only ones in the region who allows themselves to openly criticize Volodin's fellow countryman, while other colleagues together scribble the laudatory releases about his arrival. And here they are not used to being lazy: to run to shoot a street survey in the cold or manually track, who votes for a particular bill and from deputies of the State Duma - these are also “free”.

Only 15 people work in the editorial office, although in the best years-at the beginning of the tenths-it was 33. There is still a news department, a Longrid department, on the attic floor-their own video studio where they write direct broadcasts for the channel on Yetube. The structure is crowned by the editor -in -chief Lena Ivanova.

Journalist Roman Kozlov in direct etherephoto: Ekaterina Bulycheva for TD

She calls herself a “man of province”: from childhood he lives in Saratov, came to journalism in the nineties and leads the publication from the very foundation.

She has a short haircut, thick rimming glasses and two tattoos on her right hand.

On the door to her office, the “Headquarters of Thoughts” sign. With a postscript: "Disabled people of meaning."

Two and a half years ago, after the beginning of her, she, together with the employees, issued a statement by the editorial office on March 4 on how to continue to work and that now she would have to comply with the laws of censorship of wartime, and burst into tears. I realized: making honest journalism will no longer be possible.

Nevertheless, at their own peril and risk, the journalists of the “free” were one of the first to tell about the death of their 19-year-old conscript from under Saratov, which the authorities later confirmed. It was to them that the murdered mother of the soldiers came to them , who, after February 24, could not find their children: there was no one more to go.

To the left and right: a direct broadcast record in the studio of the editorial office of Free News. In the center: Elena Ivanova, editor-in-chief of the Online Information "Free News" Photo: Ekaterina Bulycheva for TD

A week after the start of the “special operation”, local telegram channels and public faces began to blame “free” in subversive activities and broadcasting hostile views. Democrates wrote and arranged the grass by local social activists, colleagues, deputies, businessmen and authors of telegram channels.

In February 2023, Masha Aleksashina, threats with her personal data began to come to one of the messengers. Appeals to the police did not give anything: supposedly threats were not a real nature.

“I demolished Watsap, I walked around a couple of weeks. Then she calmed down, ”she recalls. And in May 2023, Anna Mihin, a foreigner, recognized the journalist of the Free to the “Free” journalist. Mukhina is one of the few medical journalists who writes not only about how they opened the clinic, but also knows what pills are not in the region. In addition, Ani has an open Facebook, where she writes everything she thinks about what is happening in the country and the world.

Anna Mukhina, journalist of the news agency "Free News" Photo: Ekaterina Bulycheva for TD

After February 2022, Ivanova agreed with the founder: to be as careful as possible and take care of the security of employees, as far as possible. Neither presidential grants, nor foreign, to stay away.

It did not help. After the recognition by Mukhina in the agent-including due to recognition-several editorial staff resigned.

“Then, in CE they decided to sharply speak out about what vile media we are, how we all hate, that we have the founders abroad and we can’t be here at all,” Masha recalls last summer.

After blocking the publication, the clouds over the “free” thickened even more: a year or two years ago, the atmosphere in the editorial office was in the spirit of “we continue to observe and have fun”.

In the summer of 2024, this is not so.

"We must call the priest"

In the smoking room they speak in an undertone and turn away with the other side of the inscriptions on the circles, which, according to the new laws, can be interpreted as you like. Editors are censored by internal chats.

Last year was the most difficult in the history of the "free". The joke “We need to call the father” to consecrate the room from the evil eye, in the editorial office she ceased to be a joke.

“The worst event of the last year is the death of Navalny,” recalls Lena. - On that day, we had [the politician Ekaterina] Duntsov on our air - she came to Saratov to open the headquarters of her dawn party, and we called her to tell about it. I read some other text in my office and did not go into the editorial chat and in the news, when the chef editor of the video department burst to me and asked: “So we will change something on the air because of the death of Navalny?”

Live broadcast in the editorial office of "Free News" Photo: Ekaterina Bulycheva for TD

When Lena came to her senses after her first shock and tried to explain to reporters how to work in connection with this news further, she had a voice disappeared for several minutes. Then he periodically disappeared for another three weeks.

And then, two months later, the voice disappeared at the entire publication - when the “free” was blocked.

Attendance on the new site compared to the old fell by about 10 times. The citation index and search results from the news services also lay down. Due to the blocking, Yandex.Zen excluded the “free” from the issuance of “Zen. News”, and the new site, according to the rules, will be taken only six months later.

“So far, on the new site, we have nothing for which people could catch on when searching to get to us,” Masha explains. - For example, "Where to eat in Saratov?" or "Where to go to the pool in Saratov?" Everything is left on the old site.

Left: Merch of the Free News editorial office. In the center: Anna in the editorial office of Free News. Right: in the editorial office of "free news" photo: Ekaterina Bulycheva for TD

The search engines used to exclude the “free” from the issuance - when journalists published texts on uncomfortable or forbidden topics.

“We wrote letters about this in“ Yandex.No, ”then in“ Zen. News ”. They answered us: “Bad headline,” Masha explains. “As soon as we stopped writing something“ dangerous ”or the information farm passed by itself, smoothly returned to the issuance.”

“There are fewer resources, there are small salaries,” Lena argues. - And only the risks grow exponentially. The degree of street surveys also decreased. We did a poll about mobilized - many refused to talk. And those who spoke very frankly, we could not put on the air: “criminal”. ”

The space for work without censorship and propaganda in the country and the region is narrowed every day.

Dmitry in the editorial office of "Free News" Photo: Ekaterina Bulycheva for TD

“There are more and more United Russian resources, they become more powerful,” Masha laments. - The local television channel had five radio stations. Now they bought broadcasting for another five. And the summary of the incidents that is prepared for the vice-governor, it seems, appears earlier than the vice-governor himself. ”

"It is more difficult to explain to yourself - why"

Although there is no outright persecution of the publication right now, the journalists “free” feel: something is in the air.

“I have some kind of alarming, possibly paranoid, the feeling that something is being prepared for us,” Ivanova continues. “A single position is developed to deliver a single coordinated blow.”

С июля редакция судится с Роскомнадзором и Генеральной прокуратурой из-за блокировки.

А в конце июня к главреду «Свободных» впервые приходили домой. Два человека из местного Роскомнадзора вручили приглашение на подписание протокола: редакция не пометила в одной из публикаций экономиста-иноагента.

Лена не пошла. В редакции были уверены: в РКН хотят начать суд по лишению лицензии. Пока готовился к выпуску этот текст, это случилось.

Слева и справа: в редакции «Свободных новостей». В центре: Елена Иванова, главный редактор онлайн-информагентства «Свободные новости»Фото: Екатерина Булычева для ТД

При этом настойчиво склоняют редакцию саму отказаться от статуса СМИ. После блокировки РКН прислал письмо, в котором обвинил «Свободные» в том, что они больше не публикуют новости на старом сайте, хотя зарегистрированы как ежедневное сетевое издание. Это не так: в ленте что-то выходит каждый день.

В разговоре с шеф-редактором «Свободных» сотрудница РКН попросила отправить уведомление, что издание больше ничего не пишет на заблокированном сайте.

«Если мы отправим такое уведомление, они лишат нас лицензии, — объясняет Маша. — У нас нет плана, что делать, если это случится. Город довольно маленький, сфера еще меньше, и куда ты дальше пойдешь, если у тебя нет возможности эмигрировать? Мы с мужем, например, даже не рассматривали этот вариант, у многих коллег тоже просто нет денег, но есть ипотеки. Накоплений хватило бы на пару месяцев жизни в условном Тбилиси. С другой стороны, кажется, что института репутации в Саратове нет. Но у нас есть пример, когда нашему бывшему сотруднику отказали в трудоустройстве, потому что он работал в одном издании с иноагентом».

С этого года студентам перестали давать направления на практику в «Свободные». Те передают слова кураторов: «Университет никогда в жизни не будет подписывать с договор с организацией, которая заблокирована государством».

«Знакомые саратовцы, живущие в Москве, все как один спрашивают моего друга: “А почему вас до сих пор не посадили?” То есть они вроде и не наши враги, но искренне удивляются. Обыденность ужаса и зла: общество толерантно репрессиям», — рассуждает Иванова.

Елена Иванова, главный редактор онлайн-информагентства «Свободные новости»Фото: Екатерина Булычева для ТД

Вместе с тем часть окружения, наоборот, обвиняет «Свободные» в самоцензуре.

«Одна из подруг перестала со мной общаться, потому что мы “недостаточно оппозиционные”, — продолжает Маша. — А один очень публичный человек, эмигрировавший из Саратова, постит в своем канале наши новости — разумеется, без ссылок на нас — и дописывает то, что все мы и так знаем, но не можем написать, находясь в России. В конце он язвительно добавляет, что “Свободные”-то несвободны!»

Из сотрудников издания пока никто не уехал за границу.

«Находиться в одной редакции — большая привилегия, — говорит Маша. — Можешь кому-то налить кофе, с кем-то поговорить, с кем-то обняться. Потому что в последнее время все сложнее себе объяснить, зачем нам все это».

В материале используются ссылки на публикации соцсетей Instagram и Facebook, а также упоминаются их названия. Эти веб-ресурсы принадлежат компании Meta Platforms Inc. — она признана в России экстремистской организацией и запрещена.