Don't Believe Propaganda: Russian Channel Staff Interrupts Broadcast To Protest Ukraine Crisis
Marina Ovsyannikova, an employee of state-owned Channel One decided to take matters into her own hands and tell people of Russia what is going on. Ovsyannikova on Monday, interrupted a live news bulletin holding up a sign behind the studio presenter and shouting slogans denouncing the war in Ukraine.
A large section of the Russian population is still not aware of the fact that their country is currently at war with its neighbour Ukraine.
That is because they have been fed a different narrative - a special military operation to de-nazify Ukraine.
Given how tightly Kremlin controls the information transmitted, it is nearly impossible for the average Russian public to get a real picture of the war in Ukraine.
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But Marina Ovsyannikova, an employee of state-owned Channel One decided to take matters into her own hands and tell people of Russia what is going on.
What happened?
Ovsyannikova on Monday, interrupted a live news bulletin holding up a sign behind the studio presenter and shouting slogans denouncing the war in Ukraine.
"NO WAR. Stop the war. Don't believe propaganda. They are lying to you here." Another phrase, which looked like "Russians against war" the poster in her hand, written in both English and Russian read.
A protestor popped up live during the news on Russia¡¯s Channel 1 tonight
¡ª Mic Wright (@brokenbottleboy) March 14, 2022
¡°Stop the war! Do not believe the propaganda - they lie to you here.¡±pic.twitter.com/7rpqCSNPFX
"Stop the war. No to war," the woman protester could be heard shouting, as the news anchor continued to read from her teleprompter.
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Ovsyannikova has been since arrested and could face years in jail for her actions.
Later a video surfaced online showing Ovsyannikov who described herself as a Channel One employee and said she was ashamed to have worked for years spreading Kremlin propaganda. She said her father was Ukrainian, and her mother Russian.
"What is happening now in Ukraine is a crime, and Russia is the aggressor country. The responsibility for that aggression lies on the conscience of only one man, and that man is Vladimir Putin," she said.
Reuters
"Now the whole world has turned away from us and the next 10 generations of our descendants will not wash away the shame of this fratricidal war," she said.
Marina Ovsyannikova, the woman who ran onto a live state TV news broadcast, even recorded a message beforehand. In it, she says her father is Ukrainian. She calls for anti-war protests, says she¡¯s ashamed about working for Kremlin propaganda, and she denounces the war absolutely. pic.twitter.com/nOpUY9bH74
¡ª Kevin Rothrock (@KevinRothrock) March 14, 2022
Her act of defiance was even appreciated by Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy who thanked Ovsyannikov in his nightly video address.
"I am grateful to those Russians who do not stop trying to convey the truth. To those who fight disinformation and tell the truth, real facts to their friends and loved ones," Zelenskiy said. "And personally to the woman who entered the studio of Channel One with a poster against the war."
Zelensky personally and publicly thanks Marina Ovsyannikova for her brave protest today on Russian state TV. And he thanks all Russians laboring to speak the truth about the war. https://t.co/ocixyrleqM
¡ª Kevin Rothrock (@KevinRothrock) March 15, 2022
AP
Kira Yarmysh, the spokeswoman for jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, wrote on Twitter: "Wow, that girl is cool."
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Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
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