by Monika Bauerlein
March 2, 2023
Extract:
Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/media/2023 ... our-head/(Mother Jones) “It’s a strange way to be,” Kate Abramova said. “You live in the city you are living in, but you are living in Russia in your head.” Kate is part of the Russian independent news organization Meduza, which was recently declared an “undesirable organization” by the Kremlin. We were introduced shortly after Putin’s troops began rolling toward Kiev—Meduza published an antiwar editorial that day—and on the anniversary of that invasion we sat in a coffee shop in Palo Alto and talked about what it’s like to keep uncensored journalism alive.
…
When I first learned about Meduza, they were in the middle of a wild scramble. Sanctions in response to Putin’s war had shut off the support of 30,000 readers who donated to keep their work alive. That challenge resonated with us at Mother Jones, since support from readers is the lifeline for our reporting as well. So for a few frantic weeks, we got to be part of mobilizing a global solidarity campaign to try to sign up new supporters for Meduza. (MoJo readers stepped up in amazing ways, with donations between $1 and $100,000 to keep Meduza going.) It was powerful to know that each of us could do something concrete to stand up to authoritarianism and aggression. (You can find Meduza’s English-language reporting here. Another vital reader-supported newsroom in the region is the Kyiv Independent, which has powerful on-the-ground coverage from Ukraine and Belarus.)
Kate’s colleague, editor-in-chief Ivan Kolpakov, had asked if I could take them to a real American diner for breakfast, and over pancakes we compared notes about working with whistleblowers, the future of advertising (not good), and the power of tech platforms. But the thing that stuck with me was when they reflected about their biggest struggle today: Remaining relevant for their Russian audience. It’s not easy being a newsroom for exiles, they said—but it’s even harder to serve the country that you left behind.
There are still millions of people in Russia circumventing the censors by reading Meduza online, and Kate and Ivan’s allegiance to those readers was palpable.