Several Russian media outlets use International Day of Journalists’ Solidarity to protest against country's ‘foreign agent’ rules

To mark the annual International Day of Journalists’ Solidarity, several dozen Russian media outlets have chosen to stage a protest against the decision of the authorities to designate numerous publications as ‘foreign agents’.

Celebrated annually on September 8, the tradition was established in 1958 in honor of Czechoslovak journalist and literary critic Julius Fucik, who was executed in Berlin by the Nazis in 1943. He was posthumously awarded the International Peace Prize in 1950.

This year, many liberal-leaning Russian outlets have chosen to use the occasion to support publications listed by the Russian Ministry of Justice as ‘foreign agents,’ under the slogan “There are no foreign agents, there are journalists.”

Taking part in the protest are the likes of Dozhd and iStories, both of which have been slapped with the tag, as well as Znak, The Village, and Novaya Gazeta, which have not.

Russian authorities amended the country’s foreign agent law in 2017 in response to the decision by the US Department of Justice to force the RT America TV channel to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Now, Russian outlets identified to have received foreign funding can be assigned a similar status.

Until this year, the law wasn’t widely applied. However, most prominently in 2021, Latvia-based outlet Meduza and Moscow TV channel Dozhd were both designated as foreign agents. Other online publications, such as iStories, The Insider, and the Dutch-funded VTimes were also slapped with the label.

According to some journalists affected by the situation, the restrictions applied by the legislation significantly hinder the ability of a publication to stay afloat. They also argue that the Russian law includes significantly more requirements than the American version that inspired it. For example, each piece of content must include a warning about the designation, including on social media.

The Kremlin, however, says that including a publication on the register does not stop it from staying in business.

“That does not mean the shutdown of a certain media outlet or restrictions of its work,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in August. “Media outlets continue to have all the rights and obligations granted to them under Russia’s law on mass media.”

However, some publications, such as Meduza, have claimed that the designation means losing almost all of their advertisers, with many Russian businesses scared to fund a site with the label.

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