The head of the HRC called the blocking of “Rain” in the Baltic States a punishment for naivety

The head of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for the development of civil society and human rights, Valery Fadeev, called “punishment for stupid naivety” stop broadcasting “Rain” (recognized as a foreign media agent) in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. In his opinion, the employees of the TV channel mistakenly believed that they knew how to make this world beautiful.

“The world is beautiful and furious. Our intelligentsia, part of the intelligentsia, believes that they know how to make the world beautiful, and it is always furious, we must be aware of this. In fact, what happened with “Rain” is a punishment for my stupid naivety, that’s how I interpret it. Perhaps they will grow wiser after this story, although I have big doubts,” Mr. Fadeev said at a press conference (quoted by TASS).

On March 1, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office demanded that access to Dozhd’s resources be restricted — on the same day, the publication’s website was blocked in the country. The prosecutor’s office explained the blocking with “calls for extremist activity”, “massive violations of public order”, “participation in mass public events” and “violent overthrow of the constitutional order”. Due to the impossibility of continuing broadcasting in the Russian Federation, the Dozhd team left the country, and on July 18, 2022, the channel resumed broadcasting in Latvia.

On December 1, there was a public scandal due to the fact that the TV channel host Alexei Korostelev said the following phrase on the air about the Russian mobilized: “We hope that many military personnel, including, we were able to help, for example, with equipment and with simply basic amenities on front.” This statement provoked a public outcry and became the reason for initiating proceedings, which ended in the annulment of Dozhd’s license to broadcast in Latvia, and later in Estonia and Lithuania.

The decision of the Latvian National Electronic Media Council was criticized by Russian opposition politicians and the media as a manifestation of censorship of a channel with a pronounced anti-war stance. More than 130 organizations and hundreds of people joined the statement of Meduza (a foreign media agent) in support of Dozhd in a day. Representatives of the Russian authorities called what happened as a demonstration of the viciousness of the institution of freedom of speech in Western countries.

Andrey Sapozhnikov