Entire Staff Of Russian TV Channel Resign Live On-Air Saying ‘No To War’ Against Ukraine

Prior to that, Russia’s another remaining liberal media outlet, Ekho Moskvy radio station, was also taken off the air on Tuesday, because of government's pressure over its coverage of the war in Ukraine.

Moscow: One of the last Liberal Russian television channel TV Rain (Dozhd) has suspended its operations temporarily after being ordered to close by authorities given its broadcast coverage of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The entire staff of the news channel resigned on air, after declaring ‘no to war’ in its last telecast. Following the dramatic exit of employees, the channel closed the broadcast by playing the ‘Swan Lake’ ballet video. It was the same video that was shown on state-run TV channels in Russia when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

“We need strength to exhale and understand how to work further. We really hope that we will return to the air and continue our work,” the TV Rain (Dozhd)’s CEO, Natalia Sindeyeva, wrote on social media on Thursday.

#เสรีภาพสื่อ #รัสเซีย วิกฤต!
.
TV Rain/Dozhd ทีวีเสรีแห่งสุดท้ายถูกทางการสั่งแบน หลังเกาะติดข่าวรัสเซียบุก #ยูเครน
.
ฉากสุดท้ายของการอำลาผู้ชม มีการกล่าวทิ้งท้ายว่า “ไม่เอาสงคราม”
.
จากนั้นภาพตัดไปยังการแสดง Black Swan ที่เคยฉายบนทีวีเมื่อครั้งสหภาพโซเวียตล่มสลาย
.#ยามเฝ้าจอ pic.twitter.com/1U2ka6z2eW

— ยามเฝ้าจอ (@YarmFaoJor) March 4, 2022

Prior to that, Russia’s another remaining liberal media outlet, Ekho Moskvy radio station, was also taken off the air on Tuesday, because of the government’s pressure over its coverage of the war in Ukraine.

On Thursday, the board of the radio station, which is Russia’s one of the leading news and current affairs channels, also dissolved the channel, though it appeared still to be broadcasting on YouTube on Thursday after the board’s decision was announced, according to a report by Al Jazeera.

“The Ekho Moskvy board of directors has decided by a majority of votes to liquidate the radio channel and the website of Ekho Moskvy,” Editor-in-Chief of Ekho Moskvy radio station, Alexei Venediktov said on the messaging app Telegram.

Earlier this week, Venediktov told Reuters news agency that the station would not abandon the independent editorial line that has been its hallmark for three decades, declaring. “Our editorial policies won’t change,” he said.

He took to Twitter on Thursday and reiterated his position saying, “As long as I am the editor-in-chief, the editorial policy will remain unchanged.”

Сегодня СД Эха Москвы будет решать дальнейшую судьбу радиостанции после ее отключения от эфира РКН по представлению Генпрокуратуры.
Тут моя позиция ясна для Директоров и тех, кто реально принимает решения –
Пока я главный редактор – редакционная политика останется неизменной.

— Алексей Венедиктов (@aavst) March 3, 2022

In a move to gag the dissenting voices and stop the internal criticism of its action of Ukraine, Russia’s prosecutor general earlier this week ordered the country’s media watchdog to “restrict access” to the TV Rain as well as Ekho Moskvy. Authorities said the ban stems from “purposeful and systematic” posting of “information calling for extremist and violent acts”, Al Jazeera reported.

The Russian authorities also said the media outlets had been penalised for propagating “deliberately false information about the actions of Russian military personnel” in Ukraine. These actions against the independent media in Russia are the latest blow to the country’s rapidly waning press freedom.

Meanwhile, Russia’s upper house of parliament approved a draft law on Friday that would impose a jail term of up to 15 years for people who intentionally spread “fake” information about Russia’s armed forces, the TASS news agency reported.

The country’s parliament on Friday also passed a law imposing a jail term of up to 15 years for spreading intentionally “fake” information about the armed forces as Moscow fights back in what it casts as an information war over the conflict in Ukraine, reported news agency Reuters.

Russia, which is rejecting the term invasion, is crushing the independent media on grounds of the claim that its actions launched on February 24 are not designed to occupy territory but to destroy Ukraine’s military capabilities and capture what it regards as dangerous nationalists – a pretext rejected by Ukraine and the West as baseless propaganda.