Paul
Goble
Staunton, March 21 – Independent media
outlets in small markets far from the Russian capital are at particular risk of
being forced to close when officials impose unjustified fines against them that
they have neither the resources to pay or to hire lawyers to defend against
them. In that event, the powers that be can force them to shut down.
What has just happened in Magadan,
almost as far as one can get from Moscow and still be within the current
borders of the Russian Federation is a case in point. The authorities fined Govorit Magadan
(“Magadan Speaks”) for supposedly disseminating fake news about the
coronavirus.
In fact, the independent Internet
news agency did nothing of the kind. It reported about a “suspected” rather
than “confirmed” there but the authorities failed to see the difference and
demanded that the agency face criminal charges and pay a fine of as much as
500,000 rubles (8,000 US dollars).
Such a fine or even defending
against the charge in court is far beyond the capacity of this shoestring
operation, and its editors and writers expected that they might be shuttered,
thus eliminating what is the last independent voice in that region. Fortunately, in contrast to similar cases
elsewhere, this history has a happy ending.
Unlike in many such cases, the
independent Moscow media, including Ekho Moskvy, which had been charged with
the same “crime,” reported what was going on in the Russian Far East. As a result, Govorit Magadan says, several
people have now offered to provide free legal aid (govoritmagadan.ru/redakciya-govorit-magadan-blagodarit-ryad-federalnyh-smi-za-podderzhku-internet-gazety-v-situacii-proizvola-i-nezakonnyh-sankcij/).
As
a result and “thanks to a number of federal media,” it concludes, “we confidently
and firmly will struggle for the observance of the law and for free speech. For
our freedom and yours! Together we are a force to be reckoned with!”
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