Former Russian TV journalist under house arrest over fake news charge

MOSCOW • Former Russian TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova was yesterday placed under house arrest for two months in a criminal case where she is charged with spreading fake news about the country's armed forces, Interfax news agency quoted a Moscow court as saying.

Ovsyannikova, 44, who was born in Ukraine, has already been fined twice in separate cases for protesting against the war in Ukraine, including by interrupting a live national news bulletin in March, shouting "Stop the war!" and holding up a placard telling viewers not to believe state propaganda.

In the latest case, she faces up to 10 years in prison if found guilty of distributing information about the Russian army that differs from government accounts.

It relates to a protest in July when she stood on a river embankment opposite the Kremlin and held up a poster calling President Vladimir Putin a murderer and his soldiers fascists.

"How many more children must die before you will stop?" the poster read.

Russia passed a new law against discrediting the armed forces on March 4, eight days after invading Ukraine in what it called a "special military operation".

At Moscow's Basmanny district court yesterday, Ovsyannikova, a former editor at Channel One television, was placed in a cage surrounded by several policemen.

She will be under house arrest until Oct 9.

She had announced earlier on Wednesday that federal investigators had forced their way into her house at 6am to conduct a search before taking her away to charge her.

"They scared my young daughter," she added.

In an interview with Agence France-Presse last week, Ovsyannikova expressed hope that the authorities would not place her in pre-trial detention because she has two children.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron has offered Ovsyannikova, who worked for Russian state TV for 19 years, asylum or other forms of consular protection.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE