The journalist of “Important Histories” was fined for an official request

The court in St. Petersburg fined Maria Zholobova, a journalist of the “Vazhney istorii” publication, five thousand rubles under an administrative article on violation of the law on so-called undesirable organizations. The reason was a journalistic request that Zholobova sent to the “Special Technological Center” enterprise. Zholobova introduced herself as a correspondent for “Vazhnyh istory”, which was included by the Ministry of Justice in the list of “undesirable organizations” in March 2022.

The request concerned the enterprise’s production, including defense production. “Special Technological Center” produces “Orlan” drones. “Vazhnye istorii” together with Reuters and the British Institute of Defense Research investigated the “grey” schemes by which the sanctioned enterprise continues to receive Western components. Zholobova sent the request in November last year, the publication was published in December.

As noted by “Mediazona”, this is the first known case of prosecution of a journalist for working in mass media, deemed “undesirable”. Previously, protocols were drawn up only due to the publication of links to “undesirable” published materials.

Maria Zholobova did not appear at the court, she does not live in Russia.

• The Law on Undesirable Organizations has been in effect in Russia since 2015. More than 80 foreign and international organizations, including “Meduza”, the Andrei Sakharov Foundation, “Proekt” and The Insider, are included in the list of organizations whose activities are considered undesirable on the territory of Russia.