Meduza Explained

Meduza
Type:News website
Owners:Galina Timchenko[1]
Founder:Galina Timchenko, Ivan Kolpakov, Ilya Krasilshchik
Publisher:Galina Timchenko (since 2019)
Generalmanager:Galina Timchenko
Chiefeditor:Ivan Kolpakov[2]
Maneditor:Kevin Rothrock
Newseditor:Eilish Hart
Language:Russian
English
Headquarters:Riga, Latvia
Website:Russian:
English:

Meduza (Russian: Медуза, named after the Greek goddess Medusa[3]) is a Russian- and English-language independent news website, headquartered in Riga, Latvia. It was founded in 2014 by a group of former employees of the then-independent Lenta.ru news website.[4] [5] Free mobile applications for iOS, Windows Phone, and Android became the basis of the media.[6] A semi-official motto of the portal is "Make the Kremlin sad".[7]

History

In 2014, Galina Timchenko was fired from her job as chief editor at Lenta.ru by oligarch Alexander Mamut, a supporter of Vladimir Putin, after she had interviewed Right Sector leader Dmytro Yarosh. She launched the new webpage Meduza in October 2014.[8] Several former journalists of Lenta.ru joined the new online site.

Timchenko told Forbes that the decision to base Meduza in Latvia was made since "right now, establishing an independent Russian language publishing house in Latvia is possible, while in Russia it is not".[9] Moreover, Timchenko stated: "We understood that in Russia, most likely, they would not let us work."[10]

Russian businessman and former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and telecommunications magnate Boris Zimin had been considered as passive investors, but they parted ways "for strategic and operational reasons". Timchenko said Khodorkovsky had wanted 100 percent control of Meduza, which she considered unacceptable. For financial reasons, Timchenko and her partner at Amond & Smith Ltd, Sergey Nazarkin, based Meduza in Latvia.[11]

In February 2015, the website also launched an English-language version. In January 2016, Timchenko handed over the role of chief editor to her deputy Ivan Kolpakov.[12]

In August 2017, Meduza started a partnership with the American news website BuzzFeed News.[13] The partnership included publishing each other's materials, sharing experiences, and carrying out and publishing joint investigations.[14]

On October 20, 2018, at the outlet's annual celebration, Meduza chief editor and co-founder Ivan Kolpakov reportedly groped an employee's wife, saying, "You're the only one at this party I can harass and get away with it."[15] [16] Kolpakov was temporarily suspended until Meduza publicly censured and reinstated him. The incident triggered a social media backlash.[17] On November 9 Kolpakov announced his resignation saying that "it is the only way to stop the crisis engulfing the website and minimize the damage to its reputation".[18] He was reinstated as chief editor on March 11, 2019.

In 2019, Meduza started the English podcast The Naked Pravda, which highlights how Meduza's top reporting intersects with the wider research and expertise that exists about Russia.[19]

In May 2022, Helsingin Sanomat started publishing individual Meduza articles translated in Finnish.[20]

In February 2023, Timchenko's iPhone was targeted with Pegasus spyware. The attack occurred a day before a conference of exiled independent Russian media that was held in Berlin and which Timchenko attended; her phone could have been used to eavesdrop on the journalists' conversations during the conference. This attack is the first confirmed instance of Pegasus being used against a Russian journalist. It is unclear which state carried out the attack.[21] [22] Several employees of other independent Russian outlets, Current Time TV and Novaya Gazeta, received notifications from Apple that "state-sponsored attackers" may have attacked their phones as well.

Structure

By 2014 Meduza had a team of around 20 journalists. No Latvian journalists contribute to the project.

Since March 2015, Meduza has published a daily news called "Evening Meduza".

In September 2022, it announced the creation of English email dispatch "The Beet", aiming to amplify "local perspectives" from Central/Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, "without centering Moscow".[23] Its debut article was titled 'Suing Gorbachev' and explored Soviet violence in the Baltic states under Mikhail Gorbachev.[24]

Audience

Three months after opening, Meduza had 1.3 million monthly readers of its Internet publication.[25] In 2017, Meduza had 7.5 million readers per month and 2 million followers on social media.[26] In 2020, Meduza was the leading Russian site in social media links, according to, a company that monitors and analyzes exclusivity Russian sites on media and social networks.[27] By March 2022, Meduzas website had between 12 and 18 million monthly visitors. The majority of readers are younger than 45.

Meduza grants open source access to all their coverage of the war in Ukraine under a Creative Commons license. The articles can be reprinted in full (CC BY 4.0, does not apply to photos).[28]

Censorship

Meduza aims to fill a market niche that exists due to "a long list of forbidden topics which Russian media do not raise for various reasons—due to direct and indirect censorship".

The day after it was launched (in October 2014), Meduza was blocked in Kazakhstan, probably due to an article about the city of Oskemen (Ust-Kamenogorsk).[29]

By October 2016, access to the site has also been blocked in Uzbekistan.[30]

By 15 April 2016, Meduza reported installing technical measures to circumvent censorship with their mobile apps.[31] [32]

In June 2019, Meduza journalist Ivan Golunov was arrested by Russian police for claimed drug offences.[33] Colleagues and friends of Golunov said they believed the charges to be fabricated, motivated by his investigations into corruption.[34] Following a public outcry, Golunov was released, and five police officers were fired and later arrested.[35]

On 23 April 2021, the Russian Ministry of Justice designated Meduza as a "foreign agent".[36] [37] In response, the European Union rejected the decision, saying this restriction "goes against Russia's international obligations and human rights commitments".[38] [39] [40] [41] Russia's actions caused financial difficulties for Meduza, as they stopped many advertisers from Russia, which were the portal's main source of income, from displaying their ads at Meduzas pages. This resulted in an international campaign to collect funds to ensure Meduzas survival through donations and buying subscriptions.[42] [43] [44] Timchenko said the designation made it even harder to obtain sources that are willing to talk to the reporters – specifically without the protection of anonymity.

Meduza published an editorial condemning the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022;[45] due to its coverage of the invasion, the site was blocked on the territory of Russia by Roskomnadzor among other news websites due to the "systematic dissemination of fakes".[46] Despite the actions of Roskomnadzor, Meduza managed to maintain most of its Russian readers, but the economic sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine also hit Meduzas finances, as the sanctions made it nearly impossible to send donations from Russia and 30,000 members across the Russian border were suddenly unable to donate to the website. As a result, Meduza launched a campaign seeking donations from new supporters outside of Russia.[47] [48] On March 11, Reporters Without Borders announced a mirror site[49] has been set up.[50] Russian journalist Ilya Krasilshchik, the former publisher of Meduza, was charged under the "fake news" law for denouncing the war in Ukraine.[51]

On 26 January 2023, the Russian prosecutor-general’s office designated Meduza as an "undesirable organization" in Russia.[52] In March 2023, Timchenko said that while "Russian propaganda has enormous financial sources" and the government can spend billions to spread disinformation, Meduza has a "little crowdfunding campaign by people of good will around the world, and some support from international organizations".

Criticism

In December 2022, the independent outlet Proekt wrote that since 2019, Meduza increased the number of exclusive articles per month from two to up to eight, especially since the start of the 2022 Russia–Ukraine War. After studying 150 articles published by Meduza journalist Andrey Pertsev since mid 2019 where at least 65 predictions were made, Proekt found out that only 10% of the predictions came true. Amongst the things that didn't come true were numerous predicted government resignations, a union between All-Russia People's Front and United Russia, nine predicted annexation dates of Ukrainian regions and Russia - also, five days before the Russian attack on Ukraine, Meduza said the attack would not happen. Out of the things that did come true, except two cases, all of the predictions appeared in other publications.[53]

Awards

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Meduza.io (Medusa Project). tadviser.com . 3 May 2024 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20220924161440/https://tadviser.com/index.php/Company:Meduza.io_(Medusa_Project) . 24 September 2022.
  2. https://meduza.io/en/news/2019/03/11/ivan-kolpakov-has-been-named-meduza-s-chief-editor Ivan Kolpakov has been named Meduza’s chief editor
  3. Web site: "Медуза" ответила на вопросы читателей . 2023-01-27 . Meduza . ru.
  4. Web site: Vasilyeva . Nataliya . 2019-06-07 . Prominent investigative journalist detained in Russia . 2022-03-04 . . Moscow . en.
  5. News: Beard . Nadia . 23 October 2014 . Russian journalists set up shop in Latvia after Kremlin crackdown . . 11 July 2017.
  6. Web site: Taratuta. Julia. 2014-10-10. Галина Тимченко, главред Meduza: унизительно, когда вся политическая журналистика затаив дыхание следит за движением бровей президента. Galina Timchenko, editor-in-chief of Meduza: it's humiliating when all political journalism is holding its breath following the movement of the president's eyebrows. 2020-11-24. TV Rain.
  7. Web site: Dwornik . Bartłomiej . 14 November 2022 . Historia portalu MEDUZA. Rosyjski, niezależny, medialny okręt piracki . 2022-11-24 . reporterzy.info . pl.
  8. News: I was 'fired' because of the Kremlin. 2020-07-06. BBC News.
  9. Web site: Галина Тимченко: "Никто из нас не мечтает делать «Колокол". 11 July 2017. www.forbes.ru. 15 September 2014.
  10. Web site: 2014-09-29. Meduza Тимченко зазвонит из Латвии. 2020-07-06. www.fontanka.ru. ru.
  11. Web site: Подрез. Тарас. 2014-08-27. Экс-главред Lenta.ru Галина Тимченко учредила Medusa Project. 2020-07-06. Известия. ru.
  12. https://meduza.io/en/news/2016/01/28/meduza-chief-editor-steps-down-remains-as-ceo Meduza chief editor steps down, remains as CEO
  13. Web site: Wang . Shan . 2017-08-29 . Stories about Russia "are so hot right now" — so BuzzFeed is partnering with Meduza for more substantive Russia reporting . 2022-03-06 . Nieman Lab.
  14. News: 2017-12-07. Galina Timchenko. 2020-07-06. Politico Europe.
  15. News: Gershkovich . Evan . 9 November 2018 . Editor's Resignation Signals Milestone #MeToo Moment in Russia . The Moscow Times . en.
  16. News: Brown . Hayes . 9 November 2018 . This #MeToo Moment Is Tearing The Russian Internet Apart . BuzzFeed News . en.
  17. Web site: Stewart . Rick . 2018-11-09 . Russia's most progressive media outlet finds itself on the wrong side of #MeToo . 2022-07-28 . Global Voices . en.
  18. News: Meduza Editor In Chief Resigns Amid Sexual Harassment Accusations . 2022-07-28 . Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty . 9 November 2018 . en.
  19. Web site: 'The Naked Pravda' premiere trailer: Meduza's new English-language podcast . mdza.io.
  20. News: Mukka . Antero . 3 May 2022 . Jokainen teko sananvapauden puolesta syö pohjaa sortovallalta . Finnish . .
  21. News: Satter . Raphael . Russian journalist's phone hacked with Israeli spyware, researchers say . Reuters . 13 September 2023 . en.
  22. News: Gupta . Gaya . A report of a Pegasus attack on one Russian journalist sets off a flurry of concern among others. . The New York Times . 14 September 2023.
  23. Web site: The Beet: A new email dispatch from Meduza .
  24. Web site: Suing Gorbachev 31 years after the USSR's collapse, a group of Lithuanians sought to hold its last leader to account .
  25. Web site: Российская аудитория сайта Meduza.io достигла 1,3 млн человек в месяц. 2020-07-08. РБК. 28 January 2015 . ru.
  26. Web site: Meduza: Doing New Media in a Perfect Storm. 2020-07-08. international.ucla.edu. en.
  27. Web site: 2021-01-28. Федеральные СМИ - 2020 год. Federal media - 2020. 2021-04-27. mlg.ru. ru.
  28. Web site: Meduza is granting open access to all coverage of the war in Ukraine under a Creative Commons license. meduza.io.
  29. Web site: Издание Meduza заблокировали в Казахстане после репортажа из Усть-Каменогорска. Никита. Лихачёв. tjournal.ru. 21 October 2014. 11 July 2017. 7 March 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150307230217/http://tjournal.ru/paper/meduza-kaznet. dead.
  30. News: Bolotskaya . Rita . Bogoyavlenskaya . Evgenia . Галина Тимченко, гендиректор и учредитель проекта Meduza (Рига) . . 29 October 2016 . ru.
  31. Web site: Galimov . Samat . Кошки-мышки в Казахстане . Meduza : dev . 15 April 2016 . 13 June 2019 . 18 March 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220318194631/https://dev.meduza.io/%D0%BA%D0%BE%D1%88%D0%BA%D0%B8-%D0%BC%D1%8B%D1%88%D0%BA%D0%B8-%D0%B2-%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%B7%D0%B0%D1%85%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B5-fcfd1350a44d . dead .
  32. Web site: Alex . Meduza - Exiled Pirate Media Outlet Breaks Thru the Kremlin Propaganda Firewall . . DEF CON 31 . 18 August 2024 . 15 September 2023 . youtube.
  33. News: Russian Reporter Who Exposed Moscow Graft Is Arrested on Drug Charges. Neil. MacFarquhar. June 7, 2019. The New York Times.
  34. News: Roth. Andrew. Russian police accused of arresting journalist on false charges. The Guardian. June 7, 2019. June 7, 2019. en-GB. 0261-3077.
  35. Web site: Former officers who searched 'Meduza' journalist Ivan Golunov arrested, may face drug possession and evidence falsification charges. Meduza . 29 January 2020 . 4 March 2022.
  36. Web site: 2021-04-23. Russia Labels Meduza Media Outlet As 'Foreign Agent'. 2021-04-24. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
  37. Web site: 2021-04-23. Минюст внес "Медузу" в список "иностранных агентов". Ministry of Justice added Meduza to the list of "foreign agents". 2021-04-24. Ministry of Justice (Russia). Meduza. ru.
  38. Web site: Yun Chee. Foo. 2021-04-24. EU rejects Russian decision to label media outlet Meduza as 'foreign agent'. 2021-04-27. Reuters.
  39. Web site: 2021-04-21. EU 'Rejects' Russian Labeling Of Meduza Media Outlet As 'Foreign Agent'. 2021-04-24. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
  40. Web site: 2021-04-24. "Обязанность властей — обеспечить журналистам возможность заниматься своей работой в атмосфере, свободной от страха и принуждения". The duty of the authorities is to ensure that journalists are able to do their work in an atmosphere free from fear and coercion.. 2021-04-24. Meduza. ru.
  41. Web site: 2021-04-24. Russia: Statement by the Spokesperson on labelling Meduza as "foreign agent". 2021-04-24. European External Action Service.
  42. News: 'Is this the end of Meduza?' Hobbled by sanctions, Russian journalists seek Western donors. . en-US . . 2022-11-24 . 0190-8286.
  43. Web site: Baer . Stephanie K. . This Russian Newsroom Has Been Cut Off From Its Readers Amid Putin's War. Now It's Asking The World To Help It Report The Truth. . 2022-11-24 . BuzzFeed News . 14 March 2022 . en.
  44. Web site: Bieliaszyn . Wiktoria . 2022-03-14 . Pomóż Meduzie. Rosji potrzebna jest choć jedna niezależna redakcja . 2022-11-24 . www.polityka.pl . pl.
  45. Web site: 24 February 2022 . No to War An editorial from Meduza . Meduza . en.
  46. Web site: 2022-03-04 . Сайты "Голоса Америки", BBC, DW, Meduza и "Радио Свободы" заблокировали . 2022-03-17 . РИА Новости.
  47. News: Hakala . Pekka . 29 March 2022 . Uutissivusto Meduza onnistui säilyttämään venäläiset lukijansa Venäjän estämisistä huolimatta, mutta nyt rahat ovat loppumassa pakotteiden vuoksi . Finnish . Helsingin Sanomat .
  48. Web site: Baer . Stephanie K. . 2022-03-14 . This Russian Newsroom Has Been Cut Off From Its Readers Amid Putin's War. Now It's Asking The World To Help It Report The Truth. . 2023-06-16 . BuzzFeed News . en.
  49. Web site: Новости . 2022-03-27 . Meduza . ru . 1 July 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230701092351/https://meduza.global.ssl.fastly.net/ . dead .
  50. Web site: 2022-03-11 . RSF creates "mirror" of leading Russian exile news site blocked by Kremlin . 2022-03-27 . . en.
  51. News: Here's who Russia has punished for speaking out against the war in Ukraine . The Hill . 11 May 2022.
  52. Web site: Russia declares critical news outlet Meduza 'undesirable'. Jim. Heintz. 2023-01-26. 2023-01-26. Associated Press.
  53. News: Непубличный дом.. Proekt. 2022-12-19. 2022-01-03. 2022-12-19. https://web.archive.org/web/20221219110728/https://www.proekt.media/guide/kremlin-telegram-meduza/.
  54. Web site: 2016-11-30 . 18 тысяч рублей за человека . 2023-06-07 . . ru.
  55. Web site: 2016-12-14 . Журналист Ильнур Шарафиев получил премию "Редколлегия" за статью в "Медузе" . 2023-06-07 . Meduza . ru.
  56. News: Smale . Alison . A Russian Editor Evades Putin's Censorship . The New York Times . 7 March 2023.
  57. Web site: Galina Timchenko - Committee to Protect Journalists . Committee to Protect Journalists . 16 June 2023.
  58. Web site: The Fritt Ord Prize 2022. 2023-09-27 . Fritt Ord.
  59. Web site: Remise du Prix Franco-Allemand du Journalisme, édition 2022 13/07/2022 . 13 July 2022 . fr . Portail franco-allemand.

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