Antonina Favorskaya has covered Navalny’s trials for several years, and Reporters Without Borders said Thursday that she was one of six journalists across the country detained this month.
The journalist who shot the last video of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny before his death has been arrested by Russian authorities.
Antonina Favorskaya has covered Navalny’s trials for several years, and Reporters Without Borders said Thursday that she was one of six journalists across the country detained this month.
After the searches, our journalist Antonina Favorskaya was taken to a temporary detention center. Actions take place in the criminal case about Navalny’s “extremist community”#russia #journalism #navalny #protest pic.twitter.com/ClLSQhtWXo
— SOTA English (@sotavisioneng) March 28, 2024
Russian authorities arrested Favorskaya late Wednesday on charges of joining an “extremist organization” over her posting on the social media platforms of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, Russian human rights group OVD-Info reported.
Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmish said that Favorskaya had not published anything on the foundation’s platforms and that her arrest was targeting Russian authorities only for doing her job as a journalist.
OVD-Info said Favorskaya was initially arrested on March 17 after laying flowers at Navalny’s grave.
She spent 10 days in jail accused of disobeying police, but when the detention period ended, authorities re-charged her and ordered her to appear on Friday at Moscow’s Basmanny District Court, OVD-Info reported.
Two journalists who went to a #Moscow jail to greet a colleague who was being released, have themselves been nicked@Sota_Vision‘s Antonina Favorskaya served 10 days in a detention center for “disobedience”.
Outside, Aleksandra Astakhova + Anastasia Musatova were shoved in a van pic.twitter.com/McRSpV5cAG— Tim White (@TWMCLtd) March 27, 2024
She is one of several Russian journalists targeted by the authorities as part of Russia’s sweeping crackdown on dissent.
Two other journalists, Alexandra Astakova and Anastasia Musatova, were also temporarily detained after visiting Favorkaya at the detention center where she was being held, Reporters Without Borders reported.
Ekaterina Anikievich of Russian news site SOTAvision and Konstantin Yarov of RusNews were also arrested by police while covering the investigation at Favorskaya’s home.
Yarov told RusNews that he was beaten while in custody: “They kicked me, put a foot on my head, twisted my fingers, mocked me when I tried to stand up, asked to show my backpack as if it contained explosives.”
In Ufa, 1,300 kilometers east of Moscow, Russian authorities arrested Olga Komleva, a journalist for RusNews, on Wednesday.
She was also accused of extremism and involvement with Navalny’s organization, according to Reporters Without Borders.
Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation has been designated an extremist organization by Russian authorities, with people associated with it potentially facing prison terms.
Source :Skai
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