TV Rain

TV Rain news room hosting the channel founder Natalya Sindeyeva during a visit by then-President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev in 2011

TV Rain was founded in 2010 by two women, Natalya Sindeyeva, media entrepreneur and owner, and Vera Krichevskaya, a TV and documentary film director.[8] It has focused on news, discussions, culture, politics, business reports, and documentaries.[9] Most TV Rain shows have been live broadcasts with a motto to "talk about important things with those who are important to us".[10][11]

TV Rain was one of the first channels in Russia to cover the 2011 Russian protests against the alleged rigging of the parliamentary elections.[10] President Dmitry Medvedev was also noticed to have unfollowed TV Rain on Twitter. However, the channel was the first mass media outlet that he had chosen to follow on Twitter, according to an RIA Novosti report.[12] On 9 December 2011, TV Rain was asked to provide copies of its coverage of the protests to check if it had abided by Russian media laws.[12] By 10 December, it was showing a white ribbon, a symbol of the protests, by its on-screen logo. The station's owner, Sindeyeva, explained this as being a sign of "sincerity", rather than "propaganda", and an attempt to be "mediators" instead of simply journalists.[10]

Vladimir Milov gives an interview to TV Rain at the site of the assassination of Boris Nemtsov, 2015

On 26 January 2014, TV Rain ran a poll on its website and on its live "Dilettantes" discussion program asking viewers if Leningrad should have been surrendered to the invading Nazi army in order to save hundreds of thousands of lives during the siege of Leningrad. Presenters cited Viktor Astafyev and compared it with the 1812 capture of vacant Moscow. Within 30 minutes, TV Rain removed the poll and apologized for incorrect wording. In the following days the channel was criticized by politicians, activists, State Duma members and Valentina Matvienko[13][14] for its online poll on the Leningrad siege of World War II. Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin's press secretary, also criticized the channel[15] and said that they violated "more than a law".[16] Yuri Pripachkin, President of the Cable Television Association of Russia (AKTR), said that he wanted "to take functions of censoring".[17] In a resolution backed by the St. Petersburg legislature's deputies, Prosecutor General Yury Chaika was requested to "conduct an investigation into provocative material posted on [Dozhd] website … and, if just cause is found, take appropriate measures, including shutting down the channel."[18] On 29 January, the largest Russian TV providers disconnected the channel.[14] TV Rain was forced to move to a private apartment in October 2014.[19] In November 2013, two months before the controversy, TV Rain broadcast a report by anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny investigating high-ranking officials including Vyacheslav Volodin.[20] The channel's owner, Natalya Sindeyeva, suggested that the program caused the campaign against the channel.[21]

On 20 August 2021, the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation added TV Rain, along with the investigative website Important Stories (iStories), into the list of "foreign agents".[22][23] As stated by a representative of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation at the meeting with the members of Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, the channel was designated as "foreign agent" by the request of Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media due to distribution of materials prepared by media and individuals which were declared "foreign agents" that receive donations or funding from outside Russia earlier, such as Meduza, Current Time TV, Lev Ponomaryov, Lyudmila Savitskaya.[24] In response, Amnesty International criticized the move, stating that the authorities were "launching a campaign against independent media aimed at eradicating unbiased journalism and investigative reporting".[25]

The Moscow Times reported that during the year-long prelude to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian government began to act against independent and critical media. In that period dozens of journalists and independent media agencies including TV Rain were designated as 'foreign agents' by the Russian authorities. The term foreign agent has Soviet-era undertones. Entities that are designated as foreign agents are obligated to disclose their sources of funding and have to label their publications including social media posts with the tag foreign agent. Violation of the obligation attracts fines.[26]

In 2021, a full-length documentary film titled F@ck This Job was released. It was written and directed by Vera Krichevskaya, one of the founders of TV Rain. The film deals with work of the channel and its CEO Natalya Sindeyeva.[27] The documentary was broadcast under its alternative title, Tango with Putin in the UK in March 2022 as part of the BBC documentary series, Storyville.[28] The documentary had been due to receive its Moscow premiere and Russian distribution in early March 2022, which were cancelled due to bomb threats against the Moscow cinema, and new censorship rules following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[29]

On 24 February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. On 1 March 2022, six days after the invasion began, the office of the Prosecutor-General of Russia ordered the country's censor, Roskomnadzor (arm of Russian government) to restrict access to TV Rain as well as Echo of Moscow due to their coverage of the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces,[30] claiming that they were spreading "deliberately false information about the actions of Russian military personnel" as well as "information calling for extremist activity" and "violence".[26] On 2 March, TV Rain editor-in-chief Tikhon Dzyadko released a statement saying he and several other TV Rain workers had fled Russia, as "it became obvious that the personal safety of some of us is now under threat."[31] On 3 March, TV Rain said it was temporarily suspending operations due to the forthcoming enactment of war censorship law,[32] and towards the end of its final broadcast, the crew walked off-set and played Swan Lake in protest, in reference to the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt when channels could not report the news and instead played footage of the ballet.[33]

On 6 June 2022, Latvia's media regulator, the National Electronic Mass Media Council (NEPLP), issued a broadcasting license to the channel.[34][35] Tikhon Dzyadko stated on Twitter that the channel was going to broadcast not only from the Latvian capital, Riga, but also from several studios in the Netherlands, France and Georgia.[36][37] According to Lyngsat.com, the channel reappeared on 2 June 2022 in a test format on the satellite Astra 5B and on its streaming website.[38] On 18 July 2022, TV Rain resumed broadcasting from a studio in Riga. The channel's owner, Natalia Sindeeva, stated that the launch process would have several stages and would be finalized in autumn 2022.[39][40]

On 1 December 2022, anchor Alexey Korostelev asked viewers to provide information about mobilization to publicize irregularities, saying: "We hope that we can help many service members, for example, with equipment and basic amenities at the front". The channel was criticized by Ukrainian activists over the statement, and Latvian Minister of Defence Artis Pabriks called on the channel to return to Russia.[41] The next day, editor-in-chief Tikhon Dzyadko apologized, clarifying that the channel "has never been, is not, and will never be involved in assisting Russian armed forces with equipment" and stating that Korostelev had been fired. Three other employees, including hosts Margarita Lyutova and Vladimir Romensky, announced their departure from the channel over the firing.[42][43] The same day the channel was fined 10,000 euros by the NEPLP for using a map which showed Russian-annexed Crimea as part of Russia and referring to the Russian Armed Forces as "our army", the second major violation for TV Rain in recent months, according to the Latvian regulator.[44][45]

On 6 December 2022, the NEPLP decided to cancel the channel's broadcasting license, citing "threats to national security and public order".[46][47][48] Latvia's State Security Service also urged authorities to bar Korostelev from entering the country[49] and warned Dzyadko of potential "criminal liability in case of committing criminal offenses".[50] Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs Edgars Rinkēvičs defended the decision to initially allow TV Rain to operate in Latvia, but reminded that the channel has to comply with Latvian laws on the basis of which it was allowed to work there and therefore should be held responsible.[51] Tikhon Dzyadko called the Latvian regulator's decision to cancel the channel's licence a "farce", "absurd" and "devoid of common sense", claiming that TV Rain was not allowed to appeal the decision, and affirmed the channel's staunch opposition to the war in Ukraine.[52] CEO Natalya Sindeyeva apologized to Korostelev, calling it "disgraceful" that he was fired for a "mistake", asking him to rejoin the channel as well as Lyutova and Romensky.[53]

Reporters Without Borders called on the Latvian regulator not to withdraw TV Rain's license.[54] The Latvian Association of Journalists acknowledged TV Rain had "made a serious mistake", but believed the cancellation of licence was "disproportionate to the infringements committed".[55] Russian-language news outlet Meduza, also based in Latvia, called the decision "unfair, wrong, and disproportionate to the official violations flagged by the agency" and called it an "an incredible gift to the Russian authorities".[56] Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said to reporters that "some always think that there is a place better than home, that there is always more freedom than at home. This is one of the clearest examples that shows that these are the wrong illusions".[57] In December 2022, Latvia's TV3 Group decided to evict TV Rain from its leased Riga studio in January 2023 in connection with channel's loss of license.[58][59] However, the Latvian Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs decided not to cancel employment visas issued to TV Rain employees.[60]

On 5 January 2023, the channel paid the 10,000 euro fine imposed by NEPLP, but appealed against the 4,000 euro fine that was imposed for not providing a language track in Latvian.[61] On 9 January, Dzyadko announced that the channel had received a broadcasting license in the Netherlands.[62] The next day, the channel wrote that its editorial center would be moved to Amsterdam once its employees receive permission to work there and that it was appealing the NEPLP's decision to cancel its broadcasting license.[63]

On 25 July, the Russian government branded the channel an "undesirable" organization and banned it from operating in Russia; the country's prosecutor’s office accused TV Rain of distributing materials from “undesirable”, “extremist”, and “terrorist organizations”, as well as “foreign agents” such as Russian-language news website Meduza. The office also said the companies “discredit” Russian government bodies and law enforcement agencies, “disseminate false information” about the war in Ukraine, and support foreign agents.[64]