Russian television channel TV Rain (Dozhd) saw mass resignation on air as the employees declared “no to war” and the channel suspended its operations after it was sent orders to shut due to its coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
One of the channel’s founders Natalia Sindeeva decided to take a stand for peace as the employees staged a walk-out from the studio. TV Rain is one of Russia’s last independent news outlets.
The whole of the staff of the news channel gave its resignation live on air.
Meanwhile TVRain, the last independent media outlet operating in Russia, has shut down — here’s the last few minutes of its broadcast, poorly Google Translated. It then cut to Swan Lake, which has particular relevance: https://t.co/XXtUHroZkt pic.twitter.com/Iq7HSal7FW— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) March 3, 2022
In its final program, the channel played Tchaikovsky’s ‘Swan Lake’, which referred to August 1991 when Soviet TV stations did not telecast the civil unrest in the country but the ballet.
TV Rain goes out with a bang, broadcasting the Swan Lake performance that aired on Soviet TVs in 1991 during the attempted coup against Gorbachev. At a time when many wonder if those around Putin could stop this war in Ukraine and Russia’s plunge into isolation. https://t.co/ADFGVwxy8o— Andrew Roth (@Andrew__Roth) March 3, 2022
A day ago, TV Rain’s general director had said that the channel was temporarily halting after its website was blocked.
Sindeeva issued a statement after Ekho Moskvy radio station, one of Russia’s last remaining liberal media outlets, closed following pressure over its coverage of the war in Ukraine.
“We need strength to … understand how we can work from here. We really hope that we will return to broadcasting and continue our work,” Sindeeva said in the statement published on the channel’s website.
New York Times reported that TV Rain was already blocked by Russia’s telecommunications regulator and some of the channel’s employees had fled the country due to fear of their own safety.
It was earlier reported that media outlets in Russia have been instructed to publish information only from official sources.
(With Reuters inputs)
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