Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova appears in court after on-air Ukraine protest




Marina Ovsyannikova, the journalist who was detained after holding up an antiwar sign that read "They're lying to you" during a live Russian state television broadcast, appeared in court on Tuesday.

A news editor with Channel One, Ovsyannikova was seen on Monday carrying a poster behind an anchor in the backdrop of a live newscast. The sign, written in both English and Russian, encouraged people not to believe Russian propaganda.

"No war. Stop the war. Don't believe the propaganda. They are lying to you here," Ovsyannikova's poster read, along with: "Russians against war." Within seconds, the broadcast was cut.

According to OVD-Info, an independent human rights group that monitors arrests in Russia, Ovsyannikova was arrested after the protest and was being held at the Ostankino Technical Center, headquarters of Channel One, in Moscow.

Tass, Russia's state-run news agency, reported that a preliminary inquiry had been launched into Ovsyannikova's actions.

On Tuesday she appeared in Russian court alongside a lawyer, Anton Gashinsky. A photo circulated online of the pair smiling for the camera, with Ovsyannikova wearing what appeared to be a necklace with yellow and blue — Ukraine's national colors.

Before her on-air protest on Monday, Ovsyannikova posted a video to OVD-Info's website in which she revealed how she "regrettably" spread "Kremlin propaganda" for years.

Explaining that her father is Ukrainian and her mother is Russian, she said: "I worked on Channel One and worked on Kremlin propaganda, I am very ashamed of this right now. Ashamed that I was allowed to tell lies from the television screen. Ashamed that I allowed the zombification of the Russian people.

"We were silent in 2014 when this was just beginning. We did not go out to protest when the Kremlin poisoned [opposition leader Alexei] Navalny," she said. "We are just silently watching this antihuman regime. And now the whole world has turned away from us, and the next 10 generations won't be able to clean themselves from the shame of this fratricidal war."

Ovsyannikova continued, "What is happening in Ukraine is a crime, and Russia is the aggressor. The responsibility of this aggression lies on the shoulders of only one person: [Russian President] Vladimir Putin. Only we have the power to stop all this madness. Go to the protests. Don't be afraid of anything. They can't imprison us all."

Earlier this month, Putin signed a law that punishes people who promote what the Russian government deems "fake news." The crackdown, which blocked Facebook and Twitter in Russia, allows anyone who spreads information that is deemed to conflict with the Russian government's official narrative about the war to be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.

According to the United Nations, 691 civilians have been killed and more than 1,000 others have been injured since Russia invaded Ukraine three weeks ago. The U.N.'s human rights office, however, said the civilian death toll is believed to be "considerably higher." The U.N. also reported that the war has forced more than 3 million refugees to flee the country.

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