How many of us would be willing to risk losing our job, be socially ostracised, be declared an enemy of the state and face possible imprisonment? Marina Ovsyannikova, a long-time editor on the main Russian state news station, did just that.
Channel One, where she worked, is viewed by millions of Russian viewers, and runs stories that are solely approved by President Vladimir Putin’s regime. She edited programmes that were all Putin-spin.
But, on Monday, Ovsyannikova, whose father is Ukrainian and whose mother is Russian, decided that enough was enough. She prepared an anti-war placard that read: “No war. Stop the war. Don’t believe the propaganda. They lie to you here. Russians against war.” Then she went to the news studio, stood at the side of the set and then stepped in behind the anchor on a live broadcast and held up her poster for all the millions of viewers to see.
In an age where we’re living under a black cloud, this was one of the coolest and bravest acts I’ve ever seen. Even just imagining her standing in the wings of the studio, deciding when would be the best time to step in just makes me break into a cold sweat.
Minutes after her action, a pre-recorded video she had prepared was released. In the video, she explained how she had been riddled by guilt for working at a news channel that was essentially “Kremlin propaganda”. She said the Russian regime was manipulating citizens through its channels that “allowed the zombification of the Russian people”. She was ashamed, she said, for not protesting at the poisoning and then imprisonment of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and that is why she felt the need to speak up about the real atrocities of the Ukrainian war.
Ovsyannikova knew full well that that would be the end of her career and the end of her life as she knew it and that, possibly, it would mean she’ll be forever separated from her children but she did it nonetheless: for the sake of putting the truth out there.
She has so far been fined for spreading ‘fake news’ but is awaiting possible imprisonment of up to 15 years. I fervently hope she manages to get out of there but, probably, she won’t want to; she’ll want to stay on and fight to free her land from lies, whatever the price.
In an age where we’re living under a black cloud, this was one of the coolest and bravest acts I’ve ever seen- Kristina Chetcuti
Which brings to mind someone much closer to home: journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. She paid the ultimate price for exposing the truth. She was unearthing corruption at the top echelons of power – ministers Chris Cardona and Konrad Mizzi; Castille’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri and the now disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat – when she was blasted away.
Caruana Galizia was aware of the risks but, even as the journalist targeted most by vexatious libel lawsuits in Europe, she would not be silenced. She could not bear the corruption, the cronyism and the incompetence. This was her country and she strived for it to be a decent democracy.
Last election time, in 2017, she was exposing stories by the minute. She was killed four months later. Today, four and a half years later, we’re still nowhere near justice prevailing. We are still living in a country where the truth is constantly manipulated. The latest: that Prime Minister Robert Abela is forking out the €100 cheques sent to all out of his own pocket, Alla jbierek. The fact that this, our own money, from our own taxes, being dished out to buy votes does not feature anywhere. It’s hard to beat the drumbeat of Super One and state television. And, yet, we must.
We cannot fight construction magnates, we cannot fight for a better environment, we cannot fight to end the rule of politicians in businessmen’s pockets until we stamp out this bloody culture of impunity and that can only happen if justice is done, if the people responsible are arraigned, arrested and thrown in jail. It can only happen when journalists and activists can scrutinise power freely, like the free democracy we are meant to be.
This is the first election since Caruana Galizia was assassinated. The public inquiry report last year was decisively damning: it found the state responsible for Daphne’s death. And, yet, the people in power are still there, albeit some have moved behind the scenes; the business families involved in the schemes that reek of corruption – like the Fenechs and the Gasans – are still running their businesses and earning millions.
It’s as if nothing happened.
It would be great if we were as brave and fearless as Marina and Daphne and be willing to pay any price for the truth. But we don’t even need to. All we have to do is act to support the truth in the simplest ways possible: next Saturday, we can vote for someone who was not responsible for Daphne’s death.