Personally, I feel absolutely safe in Latvia, where I am currently. Also, the answer to your question depends on the country: in Georgia, for example, where most of our team has spent the last four months, there is another problem: journalists can have difficulties entering the country.
I firmly believe that, no matter how pathetic that may sound, progress will always precede repression. There will be clever people who will find a way out of this situation and we will use it then.
Russia has continued to restrict freedom of information over the past 20 years. A large number of people simply do not know what is going on. If we tell them, “You’re responsible,” even on the air, they won’t even understand what they’re responsible for. They’ll just say, “Go to hell, who are you anyway?”
We have to strike the right note when speaking to the people of Russia. A large part of the Russian population deserves a calm, patient conversation.
Am I, Tikhon Dzyadko, responsible for starting the war in Ukraine? I do not think so. Are the 200 employees of the Doschd television station – who took part in demonstrations and reported critically – responsible for this? No, they don’t. Are the propagandists responsible for this? No doubt they are. But in general, generalizations are a very dangerous thing.
Since the beginning of the war, Russia has banned by law from referring to hostilities in Ukraine as “war”, “invasion” or “attack”. Violators risk up to 15 years in prison. As a result, the website of the Kremlin-critical TV station Doschd, which means “rain” in German, was blocked on March 1, 2022. The station ceased operations shortly thereafter. The medium has been reporting on Russian politics and the country’s protest movements since 2008. In 2014, Russian cable providers switched off the channel. In 2021 Doschd was granted the status of “foreign agent”, which resulted in strict conditions.
Four and a half months after its closure, the station partially resumed operations last Tuesday at 8 p.m. Moscow time, moderated by Tikhon Dsjadko. In mid-autumn, Doschd plans to report with an expanded program from new studios in Tbilisi, Paris and Amsterdam. tsp
