Russian police detain journalists who back media freedom

Russian police have detained several journalists who protested authorities’ decision to label a top independent TV channel as a “foreign agent.”

MOSCOW -- Russian police on Saturday detained several journalists who protested authorities' decision to label a top independent TV channel as a “foreign agent.” The journalists held individual pickets outside the main headquarters of the country's top domestic security agency, the FSB, on Moscow's Lubyanka Square. They held placards such as “Journalism is not a crime” and “You are afraid of the truth” to protest the Justice Ministry's move Friday to add the Dozhd (Rain) TV channel and the online investigative outlet Vazhnye Istorii (Important Stories) to the list of “foreign agents.” “I’m against labelling the TV channel Dozhd as a 'foreign agent,’” said Farida Rustamova, a Dozhd journalist who picketed on Saturday. "I want to work and live freely in Russia. I want to have an opportunity to be a free journalist. I don’t want my colleagues to be arrested, searched and labeled as an ‘enemy of the people’ or ‘agents.’”