Editors-in-chief of Krasnodar media come out in support of Golunov

Artyom Besedin and Vlad Yanyushkin, the editors-in-chief of the "Yuga.ru" and "Free Media", have held solo pickets in Krasnodar in support of the journalist Ivan Golunov arrested in Moscow.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in Moscow, law enforcers had detained Ivan Golunov, a "Meduza" journalist, within a drug dealing case. Ivan asserts that the drugs had been planted on him; and his colleagues associate his prosecution with his professional activities.

On June 7, journalists held solo pickets with a demand to release Ivan Golunov in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and several other regions of Russia. In Southern Russia, the action was supported by the above Krasnodar journalists Artyom Besedin and Vlad Yanyushkin.

Artyom Besedin, the editor-in-chief of the portal "Yuga.ru", came to the building of the Territorial Department of the MIA with a poster: "Freedom to Ivan Golunov!"

"Ivan Golunov is one of the best investigative professionals in the country. I don't believe that he was engaged in drug dealing. I treat it as an attempt on the freedom of speech in Russia," the Telegram channel of the "Yuga.ru" quotes Mr Besedin as stating.

Vlad Yanyushkin, the editor-in-chief of the "Free Media", has joined Besedin – he has also come to the same building with the same poster. "Today, independent journalism in Russia is almost completely liquidated. Most likely, someone disliked Ivan's texts very much. But if we, as a community, fail to defend him, we'll occur without profession, without conscience and without freedom," his edition quotes Mr Yanyushkin as saying.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 8, 2019 at 00:45 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.