Incredibly simple.
So I’m refreshing my Twitter feed. I see a tweet—something about violations of journalists’ rights. Makes sense, I think, because yesterday journalists were attacked, badly beaten, and even had their car burned. Everyone is talking about it today.
I look more closely, and it turns out Putin’s All-Russia People’s Front (ONF) has made a map of violations of journalists’ rights.
I think: I was wrong to tear into them in the previous post. They haven’t completely lost their conscience after all. They put out this map—obviously timing it to the incident and hinting at the lawlessness that way. Propagandistic and cowardly, but for them even that counts as a feat.
I click on the map to get a closer look and move the image over to Chechnya:
According to the legend, the gray area means “no information.”
Either there is no information about violations of journalists’ rights, or no information at all. In any case, the ONF has apparently heard nothing about any violations of journalists’ rights in Chechnya.
So much for the question of whether those responsible will be punished.
However, it should be noted that not all government officials ignored violations of journalists’ rights today. From early morning, such outrages were condemned in the Federation Council.
Senator Klishas (an Anti-Corruption Foundation, ACF, subject over his improperly declared villa in Switzerland) called violations of journalists’ rights a threat to national security. He spoke about “takeovers of editorial offices” and “silencing the dissatisfied.”
No, really. See for yourself. Those were the bold words Senator Klishas used today when speaking about the mistreatment of VGTRK journalists, who were not allowed into a conference in Lithuania.