‘They’re lying to you’: Russian TV employee
interrupts news broadcast
Marina Ovsyannikova ran on to the set of the Channel
One transmission shouting: ‘Stop the war. No to war’
Pjotr Sauer
Mon 14 Mar
2022 20.49 GMT
An employee
on Russia’s state Channel One television has interrupted the channel’s main
news programme with an extraordinary protest against Vladimir Putin’s invasion
of Ukraine.
Marina
Ovsyannikova, an editor at Channel One, burst on to the set of the live
broadcast of the nightly news on Monday evening, shouting: “Stop the war. No to
war.”
She also
held a sign saying: “Don’t believe the propaganda. They’re lying to you here.”
It was signed in English: “Russians against the war”.
The news
anchor continued to read from her teleprompter speaking louder in an attempt to
drown out Ovsyannikova, but her protest could be seen and heard for several
seconds before the channel switched to a record segment.
Ovsyannikova
also released a pre-recorded video on her social media channels in which she
expressed her shame at working for Channel One and spreading “Kremlin
propaganda”.
“Regrettably,
for a number of years, I worked on Channel One and worked on Kremlin
propaganda, I am very ashamed of this right now. Ashamed that I was allowed to
tell lies from the television screen. Ashamed that I allowed the zombification
of the Russian people. We were silent in 2014 when this was just beginning. We
did not go out to protest when the Kremlin poisoned [opposition leader
Alexander] Navalny,” she said.
“We are
just silently watching this anti-human regime. And now the whole world has
turned away from us and the next 10 generations won’t be able to clean
themselves from the shame of this fratricidal war.”
Wearing a
necklace in the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag, Ovsyannikova said in her
video statement that her father is Ukrainian and her mother is Russian.
“What is
happening in Ukraine is a crime and Russia is the aggressor,” she said. “The
responsibility of this aggression lies on the shoulders of only one person:
Vladimir Putin”.
She urged
fellow Russians to join anti-war protests in order to bring an end to the
conflict. “Only we have the power to stop all this madness. Go to the protests.
Don’t be afraid of anything. They can’t imprison us all.”
The
OVD-Info human rights group said that Ovsyannikova was arrested shortly after
her protest and was being held in a police station in Moscow.
She could
face prison time under a newly introduced Russian legislation that criminalised
spreading so-called “fake news” about the Russian military. Those found guilty
under the law could face up to 15 years in jail.
Ovsyannikova
could also face legal consequences for encouraging “civil unrest” by telling
Russians to protest.
In a
statement published by the state news agency TASS, Channel One said that “an
incident took place with an extraneous woman in shot. An internal check is
being carried out”.
A law
enforcement source told TASS that Ovsyannikova could be charged under
legislation banning public acts that aim to “discredit the use of Russia’s
armed forces”.
Her
statement marks the first time that an employee from Russian state media has
publicly denounced the war as the country continues its crackdown on anti-war
dissent. So strict is the current wave 0f censorship that other news programmes
blurred out the message on Ovsyannikova’s sign in their own reports on the
incident.
Since the
start of the war, Russia has launched an unprecedented crackdown on independent
news outlets and foreign social media networks.
More than
two dozen Russian media outlets have been blocked by the country’s media
regulator or have chosen to cease operations. The widely used social media
platforms Facebook and Instagram have also been banned.
State TV
meanwhile, remains the main source of news for many millions of Russians, and
closely follows the Kremlin line.
Within
hours of her protest, more than 40,000 people had so far left comments on
Ovsyannikova’s Facebook page, with many praising her for her taking a stand.
“You are a
hero. Thank you so much,” one comment read.
Videos of
the incident quickly racked up thousands of views.
“Wow, that
girl is cool,” tweeted Kira Yarmysh, the spokesperson for the jailed opposition
leader, Alexei Navalny.
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