A rally in support of independent media and against the law on “foreign agents” took place on Saturday, September 4, near the monument to Griboyedov on Chistye Prudy in Moscow. Officially, it was in the format of a meeting of candidates for deputies with voters: the Moscow mayor’s office did not allow the rally planned for that day. The event was attended by about a hundred people, including many journalists.
Initially, the organizers of the rally were the Independent Trade Union of Journalists, which tried to coordinate with the Moscow authorities a rally of up to 500 people on Pushkinskaya Square or Nikitsky Boulevard. Having received a refusal, the organizers of the rally protested it in three Moscow courts and appealed to candidates for deputies from several parties with a request to support the event.
The meeting with voters was attended by candidates for State Duma deputies from Yabloko, including human rights activist Marina Litvinovich, former defendant in the so-called Bolotnaya case Nikolai Kavkazsky, Moscow City Duma deputy Sergei Mitrokhin and candidate for State Duma deputy from the Party of Growth Elvira Vikhareva.
Pickets in support of the Dozhd TV channel
The politicians promised the audience, if elected, to achieve the adoption of amendments to the law on “foreign agents”. Some of the participants in the event held posters in support of the Dozhd TV channel recognized by the “foreign agent” and other media and journalists who received this status from the Russian authorities. The participants of the meeting brought with them a cardboard figure of the opposition politician Yulia Galyamina, who was sentenced in December 2020 to two years probation under the so-called “Dada article” – for repeated violation of the rules for participation in mass events.
The topic of freedom of the media was also raised during a meeting with voters of candidates for State Duma deputies from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which took place later that day on Pushkin Square in Moscow.
According to the ChTD Telegram channel, rallies and pickets in support of independent media on September 4 also took place in Novosibirsk, Kaluga and Ufa.
Amendments to the law on “foreign agents”
On September 1, journalists from several media outlets, including Novaya Gazeta, radio station Echo of Moscow and TV Dozhd, appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin, his press secretary Dmitry Peskov and Minister of Justice Konstantin Chuichenko with a proposal to make 12 amendments to the current the law on “foreign agents”.
In particular, the talk was about adding the media to the list of “foreign agents” on the proposal of the Ministry of Justice exclusively through the courts, legislatively establishing the minimum allowable share of foreign funding for the media and removing the responsibility of the media for disseminating information to the “foreign agent” media. On September 3, Peskov announced that the Kremlin was ready to consider the proposal.
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