THIS MESSAGE (MATERIAL) WAS CREATED AND/OR DISSEMINATED BY A FOREIGN MASS MEDIA OUTLET PERFORMING THE FUNCTIONS OF A FOREIGN AGENT AND (OR) A RUSSIAN LEGAL ENTITY PERFORMING THE FUNCTIONS OF A FOREIGN AGENT
The message above is what journalists at Mediazona and OVD-Info now have to place on their websites and social media feeds whenever they publish an article.
Mediazona has reported on hundreds of cases of police torture and brutality, falsified drug and political charges, and the systemic violence inside the country’s prison system. OVD-Info is a human rights media project that covers every political arrest and prosecution – there are now dozens across Russia on a weekly basis – and provides legal support to people detained at protests or just outside their homes. In the past few years, openDemocracy has translated and published dozens of articles by both outlets to highlight their importance.
On Wednesday, these outlets, as well as Mediazona’s publisher and chief editor, were declared ‘foreign agents’ by the Russian Ministry of Justice. Staff working for Golos, the election monitor, were also put on the ‘foreign agent’ list.
