Former employee of Russia’s propagandist channel Marina Ovsyannikova wins Vaclav Havel Prize

Marina Ovsyannikova, a former employee of Russia’s propagandist Channel One, has won the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize for her anti-war action on the air of the Vremya program shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine back in February. 

 

The event  in Oslo was broadcasted on the YouTube channel on Wednesday. 

 

Ovsyannikova said that she did not expect to become the winner of the award. 

 

She stated that in 20 years Russia has become a totalitarian country, where people are jailed for opposing the war. 

 

“And the president of this country is a war criminal. For 20 years, Putin has destroyed all independent media in Russia, instead he has built a cynical propaganda machine,” she said.

 

On March 14, Ovsyannikova stood behind the host of the Vremya program, Ekaterina Andreeva, and unfolded an anti-war poster with an inscription:  “No war. Stop the war. Don’t believe the propaganda. They lie to you here..”