Marina Ovsyannikova told CNN correspondent Christian Amanpour on Wednesday that many Russian journalists see a discrepancy between reality and what is shown on the country’s TV channels, and that even her mother has been brainwashed by state propaganda.
“More and more I feel a cognitive dissonance between my beliefs and what we say on the air,” Ovsyannikova said. “The war was a point of no return, when it was simply impossible to remain silent.”
On Monday, the editor of Channel One appeared behind the news anchor with a “NO WAR” sign. Ovsyannikova told CNN on Wednesday she was driven by memories of airstrikes during Russia’s conflict in Chechnya, where she lived as a child.
“I’m worried about the Russian soldiers… I think they really don’t understand why they have to do this, why they [are] fighting,” she told Amanpour.
On Tuesday, Ovsyannikova was found guilty by a Moscow district court of organizing an “unauthorized public event.” An “administrative offense” carries a fine of 30,000 rubles ($280). A lawyer who previously represented Ovsyannikova told CNN that the administrative charge was based solely on a video message she had recorded prior to appearing on Channel One with an anti-war poster.
The Kremlin called her actions “hooliganism,” a criminal offense in Russia.
Ovsyannikova told CNN that she initially planned to stay away from the cameras during the protest, but then realized she needed to be near the news anchor for viewers to see her poster. She was “afraid until the last minute,” she added.
“I decided that I could bypass the security that is in front of the studio and stand behind the host. Therefore, I moved very quickly, passed by the guards and showed my poster, ”said Ovsyannikova.
In a video message recorded ahead of the public protest, Ovsyannikova blamed Putin for the war.
“What is happening now in Ukraine is a crime, and Russia is an aggressor country, and only one person is responsible for this aggression. This person is Vladimir Putin,” Ovsyannikova said.
“Unfortunately, for the past few years I have been working on Channel One and doing Kremlin propaganda, and now I am very ashamed of it,” she said in the video. “It’s a shame that I allowed to tell a lie from the TV screens, it’s a shame that I allowed the Russian people to be zombified.”
“I am ashamed that we were silent in 2014, when all this was just beginning,” she says, referring to the Russian annexation of Crimea.
Press censorship
Earlier this month, Putin signed a censorship law that criminalizes what Russia considers “fake” information about the invasion of Ukraine, with penalties of up to 15 years in prison for all convicted, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. lashed out at local media over the war in Ukraine, and as a result, many cut their coverage. International networks such as CNN, ABC News, CBS News and others have stopped broadcasting from Russia. And the independent Russian news agency TV Rain, also known as Dozhd, has shut down altogether. Its editor and staff, as well as other independent journalists, have left the country.
On Wednesday, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported that Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media communications watchdog, had restricted access to the BBC News website at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
Earlier in March, Roskomnadzor restricted access to the BBC Russian Service website.