On Russia state-owned Channel 1, during the live evening news bulletins on Monday evening, a woman holding a anti-war sign ran onto the set and stood behind the news presenter. The sign read,“No war, stop the war, don’t believe the propaganda, they are lying to you here”.
The woman identified as Marina Ovsyannikova was thereby arrested for the same and is in police custody as per reports. The women works as an editor at Chanel 1.
Earlier, she recorded a video of herself in which she referred to the Russian invasion as a ‘crime’ and said she was ashamed to have worked for “Kremlin propaganda”.
“I’m ashamed that I allowed myself to tell lies from the television screen. Ashamed that I allowed Russians to be turned into zombies,” she said.
She also urged the citizens of Russia to protest against the war and said only they could “stop the madness”.
Since the incident, Marina Ovsyannikova’s Facebook page has overflowed with comments thanking her for her act of protest, a BBC report said.
Even Ukraine President Zelenskyy thanked her in a video message. He said, “I am grateful to those Russians who do not stop trying to convey the truth…and personally to the woman who entered the studio of Channel One with a poster against the war.”
Since the invasion of Ukraine, new laws in Russia have put a tight control on media reportage of the war. A law passed earlier this month made it illegal to call Russian military action an ‘invasion’.
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