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🔴The situation around Russian opposition TV channel Dozhd TV (translated as “Rain”), that was labelled as “foreign agent in Russia, like most of non-government funded media, had to relocate from Russia — and landed, like most of such outlets, in Latvia, is very illustrative.

Not sure why Latvia was so welcoming to hundreds Russian journalists who criticise Kremlin and have anti-war position — all of them got work permits (despite generally Russians are banned from Europe, and Baltic countries particularly, even if they had valid Schengen visas), but Riga has been hosting one he most influential online media outlets in Russia, Meduza, since 2014.

So what happened with Dozhd?

On Friday, the channel fired its presenter, Alexey Korostelev, for a phrase he used a day before and that draw criticism from (!) Ukrainian bloggers, and then Latvian authorities.

The journalist during a live broadcast urged viewers to write to the channel about violations during mobilization. “Many of the stories sent to us or to the Telegram bot are now public. We hope that we can help many service members, for example, with equipment and basic amenities at the front,” he said. The phrase was later cut off from the program.

Channel editor-in-chief Tikhon Dzyadko apologised on Telegram, saying Korostelev’s phrasing “gave viewers the sense that TV Rain is providing assistance to the Russian army.” Dzyadko emphasized that the network has never provided equipment to the Russian army and noted that the hotline was created to collect personal testimonies about the Russian army’s crimes in Ukraine and about violations of Russia’s mobilization laws.

However, Latvian authorities have fined the TV channel 10,000 euro, as they stated, for using a map that shows Crimea as a part of Russia and for calling Russian armed forces "our army." They also launched a probe into Korostelev’s statement where he “appeared to express support for the Russian military” — this could be considered as administrative offence (In Latvia, you can be persecuted or even stripped of citizenship for expressing support for Russia or non-support for Ukraine, for ex. hundreds of administrative cases were launched against people who threw out Ukrainian flags).

Why this incident is significant?

Firstly, because Latvia (or Georgia and Armenia, for that matter), may realise the consequences of hosting “Russian media refugees” and nothing prevents them from stripping them of licences, if they decide that their support (or obligations?) before Ukraine (NATO chiefs?) is more important.

Secondly, because going by the reactions in the Russian liberal media circle, this incident was an eye-opener for many. In some closed chats, people were fuming about both TV channel’s policy and Latvia’s response. “They are firing you for a slip of tongue after 8 years of service, stripping you of work permit, urging you to go back to Russia where you, as a journalist who worked for a “foreign agent media’ will be definitely persecuted - how cool is that”. Others were surprised to learn (at last!) that freedom of speech is not just Russia’s problem.

https://meduza.io/en/feature/2022/12/02/equipment-and-basic-amenities

Meduza

‘Equipment and basic amenities’

Leadership at TV Rain fired host Alexey Korostelev after the channel received criticism for Korostelev’s “ambiguous” remarks. In an evening broadcast on December 1 of the program “Zdyes & Seychas” (Here and Now), Korostelev promoted the station’s hotline…

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