October 14, 2021- On the same day that Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov’s Nobel Peace Prize was announced, the Russian authorities added the names of eight journalists alongside several news media organizations to its “foreign agent” list. Four among these eight journalists are women. The controversial foreign agent law adopted by the Russian Ministry of Justice places journalists and news media organizations under intense financial surveillance and scrutiny and has long been criticized for being a means to silence the press. The Coalition For Women In Journalism denounces this move by the Russian authorities. 

According to news reports and the official list, women journalists included on the list are freelance correspondents for the US Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Tatyana Voltskaya, Yekaterina Klepikovskaya, Yelena Solovyova and Yelizaveta Surnacheva. They also added Galina Arapova to the list. Galina is not a journalist herself but a civil rights advocate and the director of Mass Media Defence Center, a local group that provides legal aid to journalists and media outlets.

Other journalists whose names are on the list include Danil Sotnikov with the independent news channel Dozhd TV, BBC Russian correspondent Andrei Zakharov and Roman Perl. The news organizations added to the list of foreign agents include US-based Mason GES Anonymous Foundation, which owns the news website MNews, Netherlands-based investigative outlet Bellingcat, MEMO and publisher of the Caucasus-focused independent news website Kavkazsky Uzel. 

Passed in 2012, the foreign agent law in Russia requires organizations and journalists, who received funding from outside the country, to present themselves before state authorities for regular audits and identify themselves as “foreign agents” for all of their work, among other restrictions. The failure to abide with this can lead to fine and jail time. The law in effect is an intimidation tactic against foreign correspondents and publications not obligated to walk the state line in their reporting.

The Coalition For Women In Journalism is extremely concerned about the addition of the aforementioned journalists and organizations. We recognize this as an attempt to muffle the press. The foreign agents legislation in the country should be repealed to create a safer and more just environment for press personnel and organizations to operate. Laws like these only exist to extend state control on narrative formation and are an attack on the principles of freedom.