'The news returns’ – that is the slogan for the Meduza Project, a new Russian-language independent media organisation based in Latvia launched this week.
Prior to its launch, the Meduza team had been reticent, even secretive, about the details of their project. Now, impatient onlookers can finally see what the first major journalistic response to the government’s recent media crackdown looks like.
Headed by Galina Timchenko, the former editor-in-chief of Russian news website Lenta.ru, Meduza is run by a team of around 20 journalists. They were among the nearly 70 Lenta.ru reporters who collectively resigned from their jobs in March following Timchenko’s unexpected removal from her post by the website’s owner and Vladimir Putin ally, the oligarch Alexander Mamut.
Timchenko’s sudden removal as editor, reportedly the consequence of a dispute between her and Mamut over coverage of the Ukraine crisis, marked a turning point for the Russian media landscape. The following months saw entire newspaper editorial teams resigning in protest against censorship, sudden reshuffles at the command of newspaper financiers, and a slew of laws introduced by the government to tighten its grip over the distribution of information.