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Russia's Journalists Walk Dangerous Tightrope Covering COVID-19 Pandemic

RFE/RL

   The Novosibirsk-based news website Taiga.info recently published an
   interview with a woman who told the independent outlet that she called
   an ambulance after experiencing severe flu-like symptoms that she
   feared could be COVID-19. The paramedics who showed up had no gloves,
   masks, or other personal protective equipment (PPE), she said.
   "The management of Novosibirsk's ambulance service wrote a complaint to
   the prosecutor's office and [state media-monitoring agency]
   Roskomnadzor," the Siberian website's editor, Aleksei Mazur, told
   RFE/RL. "A few days later, an ambulance paramedic who had been handling
   possible coronavirus infections was diagnosed with COVID-19. It turned
   out he had only a normal mask and had not been issued a respirator."
   Earlier this month, St. Petersburg journalist Tatyana Voltskaya, who
   writes for RFE/RL's Russian Service, published an [1]interview with a
   local doctor who warned of a looming shortage of ventilators and
   qualified emergency doctors in the city. The doctor, concerned about
   possible retribution for speaking out, insisted that his name be
   withheld.
   Days after the interview was published, Voltskaya received a phone call
   from a police investigator. "He immediately asked me to reveal my
   source," Voltskaya said. "I refused."
   Voltskaya said the investigator claimed that he only wanted to make
   sure the hospital where the doctor worked had adequate supplies.
   "The investigator said that Bastrykin was interested in the interview,"
   she recalled, referring to the head of the federal Investigative
   Committee, Aleksandr Bastrykin. "If that is true, then get to work!
   They should put on masks and go and see [what is going on].... Is that
   so hard? Why drag me into it?"
   A few days later, local state-friendly media reported that St.
   Petersburg Governor Aleksandr Beglov had warned that the city faced a
   dire shortage of ventilators and PPE for medical workers.

References

   1. https://bit.ly/2Y189K3

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