Your podcast discovery platform
Curious minds select the most fascinating podcasts from around the world. Discover hand-piqd audio recommendations on your favorite topics.
piqer for: Deep Dives Global finds Globalization and politics Health and Sanity
Daria Sukharchuk is a journalist based in Berlin, where she works as a news anchor for Russian-language OstWest.tv. Her writing has appeared in Motherboard and ZEIT Online, Cosmopolitan, as well as Afisha (Moscow's leading city magazine). She specializes on the topic of human rights, migration, and mental health.
She has her BA in Chinese history, and, never having forgotten her history background, has also contributed to the educational project1917.com.
Prison Sentences For Online Posts: Russian Government's Attack On The Internet
A chilling chronicle, written by a human rights advocate. This article documents how Russian law enforcement is becoming increasingly harsh towards "undesirable" internet users. They are taking full advantage of the vagueness of newly written laws, where any action as small as a 'like' under a post critical of the regime can be defined as "inciting violence." Meanwhile, right-wing groups, and even mainstream TV presenters, are at liberty to utter the most hateful sentences in public and get away with it.
The punishments doled out by the courts have only increased in severity. Where 10 years ago it was possible to revoke the actual prison sentence, today the lawyers can only hope to soften it.
But the scariest part of this story is not even the abundance of the cases: it's the fatigue of the people. This story can be read as a cautionary tale: one does not need intricate systems like the infamous Golden Shield of China to limit the free speech. It is enough to have a lethargic public.
