The Russian edition VTimes, founded by former Vedomosti journalists, will cease to exist on 12 June. The reason for this was the inclusion of the publication by the Ministry of Justice in the list of foreign media agents, the publication said on its Telegram channel page.
“We are forced to inform you that we do not see an opportunity to continue publishing VTimes. In the three weeks that have passed since the Ministry of Justice added the administrator of the vtimes.io website to the list of foreign media outlets, we have studied seven scenarios for VTimes to continue its activities – with or without foreign agent status. In each of the scenarios there was a risk of criminal prosecution of the employees of the publication with the possibility of imprisonment, ”the statement says.
It is noted that the decision to terminate the existence of the publication was made due to fears of criminal prosecution after this media outlet was recognized as a foreign agent in Russia.
“The“ foreign agent ”label hung on the administrator of the vtimes.io website destroyed the VTimes business model – and we created this publication precisely as a business. Advertisers and partners do not understand how to cooperate with a “foreign agent” – and we cannot blame them for this. Voluntary donations from readers are not enough to fund a quality media publication. Even worse, the “foreign agent” status deprives VTimes of most of our media agenda: many officials, businessmen and even analysts are afraid to comment on the “foreign agent” – and we also understand why. Essentially, VTimes are being pushed into the niche of opposition political media. But we conceived and made a completely different media, ”the statement adds.
Journalists of the Vedomosti newspaper founded VTimes at the end of July 2020 as a sign of disagreement with the actions of the new leadership of the newspaper. In particular, we are talking about the actions of the editor-in-chief Andrei Shmarov, who made edits to the already published texts of Vedomosti journalists. Subsequently, a number of journalists, including the deputy editor-in-chief of the publication, accused Mr. Shmarov of censorship and resigned in protest. The VTimes media resource was launched in the fall of 2020. It was registered in the Netherlands. The Russian Ministry of Justice added VTimes to the list of foreign media agents on May 14.
Read more about why the publication received the status of a foreign agent from the Ministry of Justice in the material of “Kommersant” – “These are VTimes.”
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