A Moscow journalist who protested Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by interrupting a live news broadcast on Russian state television in March has been awarded the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize.
In a ceremony in Oslo on May 25, Marina Ovsyannikova received the award, given annually by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to honor “outstanding” civil society action in the defense of human rights
Ovsyannikova, 43, burst onto the set of the Vremya news program on Russia’s Channel One on March 14 while holding a poster reading in part “Stop the war. Don’t believe propaganda. They are lying to you” in Russian. She also shouted in Russian: “Stop the war. No to war.”
While it triggered a wave of support worldwide, the Kremlin condemned her action. She has been charged with “discrediting” the armed forces.
Since her protest, Ovsyannikova left Russia for Germany and was hired in April as a freelance correspondent for Die Welt.