MOSCOW: A Moscow court on Friday ordered a journalist who covered the trials of late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to be held in pre-trial detention on “extremism” charges.
Prosecutors say Antonina Kravtsova, a correspondent for the independent SotaVision outlet, participated in an “extremist organization,” charges which carry up to six years in prison.
The Kremlin outlawed Navalny’s organizations as “extremist” before his death and has carried out a crackdown against his allies who stayed in Russia.
“The Basmanny District Court ordered Antonina Kravtsova to be remanded in custody for a period of two months,” the press service for Moscow courts said in a post on Telegram.
Kravtsova, who also goes by the name Antonina Favorskaya, regularly covered Navalny’s trials. She filmed a court hearing of him a day before he died in an Arctic prison colony last month.
She was arrested upon leaving jail earlier this week, where she had already served a 10-day sentence on charges of disobeying police orders.
She had originally been detained hours after visiting Navalny’s grave in southern Moscow during the Russian presidential election.
Prosecutors say Kravtsova posted materials on Navalny’s social media platforms that are banned in Russia.
In court on Friday, Kravtsova said the case was retribution for an article she wrote about how Navalny was “tortured” in prison, SotaVision reported.
The article was shared on X by Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, who described it as an “important text.”
Navalny’s team has condemned the case and on Friday said the Russian regime was trying to create a “new wave of fear” among its critics.
Russian court orders journalist in Navalny case detained
https://arab.news/zej2r
Russian court orders journalist in Navalny case detained
- SotaVision correspondent Antonina Kravtsova to be held in pre-trial detention on “extremism” charges
- Kravtsova is accused of participating in an “extremist organization” and posting prohibited material on Navalny's platform
China’s national security agency in Hong Kong summons international media representatives
HONG KONG: China’s national security agency in Hong Kong summoned international media representatives for a “regulatory talk” on Saturday, saying some had spread false information and smeared the government in recent reports on a deadly fire and upcoming legislative elections.
Senior journalists from several major outlets operating in the city, including AFP, were summoned to the meeting by the Office for Safeguarding National Security (OSNS), which was opened in 2020 following Beijing’s imposition of a wide-ranging national security law on the city.
Through the OSNS, Beijing’s security agents operate openly in Hong Kong, with powers to investigate and prosecute national security crimes.
“Recently, some foreign media reports on Hong Kong have disregarded facts, spread false information, distorted and smeared the government’s disaster relief and aftermath work, attacked and interfered with the Legislative Council election, (and) provoked social division and confrontation,” an OSNS statement posted online shortly after the meeting said.
At the meeting, an official who did not give his name read out a similar statement to media representatives.
He did not give specific examples of coverage that the OSNS had taken issue with, and did not take questions.
The online OSNS statement urged journalists to “not cross the legal red line.”
“The Office will not tolerate the actions of all anti-China and trouble-making elements in Hong Kong, and ‘don’t say we didn’t warn you’,” it read.
For the past week and a half, news coverage in Hong Kong has been dominated by a deadly blaze on a residential estate which killed at least 159 people.
Authorities have warned against crimes that “exploit the tragedy” and have reportedly arrested at least three people for sedition in the fire’s aftermath.
Dissent in Hong Kong has been all but quashed since Beijing brought in the national security law, after huge and sometimes violent protests in 2019.
Hong Kong’s electoral system was revamped in 2021 to ensure that only “patriots” could hold office, and the upcoming poll on Sunday will select a second batch of lawmakers under those rules.
