The courageous members of Pussy Riot, Nadya Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina, have launched a new website called Media Zone, a new independent Russian news outlet focusing on courts, law enforcement and the prison system. I have just visited the site (and I don’t read Russian!) but according to the press release, the new project will work hand-in-hand with their prisoners rights NGO ‘Zona Prava’ (‘Justice Zone’), focusing on protecting prisoners’ rights.
With Sergey Smirnov as the editor-in-chief, this new and independent media outlet will monitor conditions in Russian prisons, police stations and courts, and will write about ‘arrests, convictions, riots in penitentiary facilities, political criminal cases, crimes by law enforcement officials, life of present-day and former prisoners and lots of other things’, as a reaction against the Kremlin’s clampdown on independent media.
‘Today we opened up our very own NEWS OUTLET. Today’s launch is the answer to your questions about what we were doing since we got out at New Years’ eve last year,’ posted Nadya Tolokonnikova on her Facebook page
‘Since our release from prison 6 months ago we’ve felt that Russian media are no longer able to cover what is going on,’ continued Nadya. ‘Because of the heavy censorship by authorities there is no space for anything in the media that criticizes Putin’s policies and tracks human rights abuses by Russian courts and law enforcement. Courts, prisons, arrests, convictions, riots in facilities, political criminal cases, crimes by law enforcement officials – our new media outlet will try to cover it all.’
‘There is hardly any political issues left in Russia outside of courtrooms’, confirmed Maria Alekhina, ‘and there is a great need for transparency and media coverage of things that are happening down there, so we hope that Mediazona will help close that gap and change the face of independent Russian media.’
When I saw them during a Q&A a few months ago, they were saying they were focusing on prisons (they even wanted to visit US prison) and not on their wild performances anymore…performances like the one at Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ The Savior, which caused them to be arrested, charged with hooliganism, and sentenced to 2 years of imprisonment. With this new media outlet they want to break down the information blackout imposed by Putin’s authorities, and they think that this is the best way to do it:
‘Myself and Masha—we love to write,’ said Tolokonnikova, ‘and we hope that if we do it well enough our editor-in-chief Mr. Smirnov will kindly allow us to be published in Mediazona too (kidding!).’
This is the proof, one more time, that writing can be one of the most powerful forces out there.
