russian propagandist Ovsyannikova receives Havel Prize for Creative Dissent at the Oslo Freedom Forum
Former russian propagandist and "Pervyy" channel editor Marina Ovsyannikova was awarded the Vaclav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent at the Oslo Freedom Forum 2022, Detector Media reports.
In her speech, Ovsyannikova spoke about reading Orwell's 1984 novel once as a student and how she believed that this could never happen in russia, "but she was wrong." She also said that people in russia were being arrested for anti-war statements, independent media were being exterminated, and putin was a war criminal who had built a "cynical and false propaganda machine." She also noted that the russian media are teaching russians to hate Ukrainians.
Among other things, Ovsyannikova said that February 24 was a shock and a point of no return for her, that she allegedly knows what millions of Ukrainian women and children are feeling now, and that russia must lose this war as soon as possible. Ovsyannikova promised to use the monetary part of the award to help Ukrainian refugees.
As IMI has reported, in the beginning of March, Ovsyannikova entered the studio during an allegedly live "Vremya" broadcast with a "No war" poster. The video recording of this part of the broadcast has been uploaded to YouTube. Later, the russian quit her work at the propaganda channel.
The Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security has reported that Ovsyannikova is currently an active asset in russian informational and psychological operations. Namely, she has gained recognition and credibility in the West and is using it to promote the narrative about the "necessity" of lifting the sanctions to Western audience.
German media outlet Die Welt has hired Ovsyannikova as a correspondent.
On April 14, Ukrainian activists in Berlin demanded that Die Welt media group fires the former editor of russian propaganda channel "Pervyy" Marina Ovsyannikova.
On April 21, the German Weimer Media Group (WMG) gave the Media Freedom Award to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanowskaya and the former editor of the russian propaganda channel "Pervyy" Marina Ovsyannikova.
The National Council of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting called on the German Weimer Media Group to refrain from awarding the Media Prize for Freedom to russian propagandist Marina Ovsyannikova.
After this, she was excluded from the list of winners of the German Media Freedom Award.
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