Russia: Authorities Threaten Christina Hebel and Fellow Journalists Covering Women's Protest
Security services visited the DER SPIEGEL reporter’s home, warning her not to report on the demonstration
Location: Russia, Moooscow
Date: February 9, 2024
Several journalists were threatened by police and security services ahead of a planned demonstration in Moscow organized by Russian women demanding the return of their relatives conscripted into the army and now fighting in Ukraine. Russian authorities are blatantly attempting to silence media coverage of the protest movement. Their preemptive actions to prevent domestic and foreign media from reporting on the demonstrations, coupled with the mass detentions just a week earlier, underscore their fear of potential mass mobilization or disruption of their false narrative regarding their war of aggression in Ukraine. This shows the importance of reporting from these demonstrations. With the Kremlin's ongoing crackdown on press freedom and muzzling of freedom of expression, journalists in Russia who dare to report the facts about the war face legal harassment and imprisonment. The government cannot be allowed to continue strangling and gagging the press through detentions, threats of legal action, and house raids. The Coalition For Women In Journalism and Women Press Freedom calls upon European and US embassies operating in Moscow to collectively ensure the safety and freedom of the press, both domestic and foreign.
On February 9, 2024, several journalists in Moscow were visited by security authorities and intimidated, apparently in response to their coverage of an upcoming protest by wives, mothers, and sisters demanding the return of their family members from the Ukraine war.
Media workers were warned by police officers not to attend the protest. Some journalists received calls and requests to report to the police station, while others faced direct threats of house raids and criminal proceedings. Foreign correspondent for DER SPIEGEL, Christina Hebel, was also targeted, with security personnel waiting for her outside her home. Hebel revealed that the officers told her not to report on the demonstration in Moscow. She proceeded to cover the protest and shared videos from the event on her Twitter account.
“The authorities don’t know how to deal with angry women - arresting them would fuel even more anger. That’s why they’re putting pressure on us journalists - including and - this is so new - foreign correspondents”
“The authorities don't know how to deal with angry women - arresting them would fuel even more anger,” wrote Hebel. “That's why they're putting pressure on us journalists - including and - this is so new - foreign correspondents.”
A week earlier, more than 20 journalists were detained during a similar women's action in Moscow. Authorities targeted only the male journalists present, among them a photographer affiliated with DER SPIEGEL and Dutch correspondents. The detained journalists were held for several hours before being released.
The protest on Saturday, February 10, 2024, marked the tenth occasion where Russian women intended to lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on the Kremlin Wall to voice their grievances. The protest is part of the ongoing "Way Home" movement, initiated by wives of conscripted Russians, which aims to bring soldiers back home from the front lines and halt further mobilization efforts. The movement has been gathering momentum, with dozens of women regularly traveling to Moscow to participate in protests at the Kremlin wall.
Russia has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to extend its tactics of repression beyond its own citizens to target foreign correspondents, effectively weaponizing legal mechanisms for this purpose. This became evident when, eight months after the Kremlin's detention of Wall Street Journal's Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva, a highly respected editor for RFE/RL and a U.S. citizen, was also arrested. Kurmasheva remains in custody, facing increasingly severe charges that could result in her imprisonment for more than ten years. The fear of detention, placement on Russia's blacklist, and the refusal of visa renewals for foreign journalists have created significant obstacles for international reporting within Russia, ultimately consolidating the Kremlin's grip on the media narrative.
The Coalition For Women In Journalism and Women Press Freedom vehemently condemns the Russian authority's attempts to threaten Christina Hebel and her colleagues. The intimidation tactics employed by the Kremlin against journalists covering the protests organized by the "Way Home" movement in Moscow reveal a desperate attempt to suppress dissenting voices and control the narrative surrounding the public’s view of its war of aggression in Ukraine. These preemptive measures, coupled with the mass detentions of journalists just a week earlier, underscore the regime's fear of both domestic mobilization and international scrutiny.
We urgently call on the international community, especially European and US embassies operating in Moscow, to do everything in their power to ensure the safety of journalists operating in Russia. Following the detentions of Gershkovich and Kurmasheva, it's evident that the Kremlin is willing to target and detain all reporters, irrespective of their citizenship, for simply doing their jobs. Putin and his regime must face consequences for holding members of the press hostage.
The Coalition For Women In Journalism is a global organization of support for women journalists. The CFWIJ pioneered mentorship for mid-career women journalists across several countries around the world and is the first organization to focus on the status of free press for women journalists. We thoroughly document cases of any form of abuse against women in any part of the globe. Our system of individuals and organizations brings together the experience and mentorship necessary to help female career journalists navigate the industry. Our goal is to help develop a strong mechanism where women journalists can work safely and thrive.
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