On March 11, 2014, Galina Timchenko was the editor in chief of Russia’s most popular news website – Lenta.ru. The next day, she was jobless.
According to a statement issued by 73 of the 81 journalists who worked at Lenta, Timchenko had been sacked so the Kremlin could install a more… malleable editor. A large portion of the staff quit in solidarity with her.
A year later, Timchenko and a cohort of ex-Lenta journalists set up shop in Riga, Latvia and started the Meduza Project. Now, they report their motherland’s news from across the border, free of harassment, censorship and danger.
Crossings Institute Research Fellows Casey Minter and Reuben Unrau spoke with Timchenko and Ivan Kolpakov, another editor of Meduza.io, during World Press Freedom Day events in Riga. Listen in for more, and visit their website at www.meduza.io/en
Music: Bedroom Trax – “PCT”
