The TV Dozjd studio, also known as TV Rain, looks slick with its four roboticcameras, five camera lights, well-equipped control room and news desk. Acameraman quickly paints a wall light gray, a technician adjusts a camera lampand in the control room the row of small screens is viewed.
The studio was set up in no time for the independent TV channel founded in2010, which was taken off the channel by Russia in March this year. After morethan six months, the station decided to move to Amsterdam to settle in thesame space as The Moscow Times from publisher Derk Sauer, which has beenhoused in the Init building of DPG-Media since March 21, 2022.
Sauer and the owner of TV Rain, Natalya Sindeeva, have known each other forover twenty years. Sauer: “She actually wanted to give up when the stationcould no longer broadcast in Russia in March. When she heard we were here with_The Moscow Times_ , she asked if they could also come to Amsterdam. We haveenough space here.”
Heavy prison sentences
Sindeeva calls it a “very difficult decision” to stop broadcasting in Russia.”I had to cry, but the decision not to continue was made unanimously by ourteam.”
It is a great relief to her that the station is picking up the thread again.“There are many viewers in Russia who do not listen to the propaganda stationsand are hungry for the truth. These people have so many enemies around themand have become disoriented. They need to know that we think the same as theydo and that we have the same standards and values. TV Rain is a unifyingfactor.”
TV Rain wasn’t the only news station that decided to shut down when a newRussian law passed that would allow heavy jail sentences for journalists forreporting on the war in Ukraine. BBC, CNN, CBS News and ABC News also ceasedoperations in Russia.
Mission
Political journalist Mikhail Fishman (49), one of the exiled TV Rainemployees, found it difficult to stop in Russia. He first fled with his familyto Azerbaijan for a month, and then spent almost six months in Israel. SinceAugust he has been living in Amsterdam with his wife, who is also a journalistat TV Rain.
It was a foregone conclusion for Fishman to continue with his journalisticwork. “I have a mission. My people need to know what’s happening. I neverthought I would leave Russia, but it became too risky and difficult to reportfrom Russia. I had no choice. It became more and more uncomfortable for methere.”
As a journalist, he would rather have stayed in Russia, he says. “I’m supposedto be there. That’s where I can best see and feel the developments in mycountry. I also have a responsibility to make sure the war ends.”
Fishman has worked for TV Rain since the station’s inception. Previously, fromthe late 1990s, he wrote for various media such as the Russian News Week and_The Moscow Times_ on political topics. He also wrote a book on Russianpolitics.
“At the time, TV Dozhd presented itself as an independent and fresh newsstation and gave me the opportunity to do my own TV show. That was aninteresting challenge for me. It was during the time of the ‘Medvedev thaw’,when the climate in Russia softened under the former president. We then hopedthat he would stay for a second term. There was hope for the future with himat the time.”
Family and friends
Fishman, meanwhile tried and tested, will continue in the same way fromAmsterdam. The TV station broadcasts on YouTube, which is not (yet) banned inRussia.
“I will make political analyzes about the situation in my country and conductinterviews with, for example, a Ukrainian adviser from the southern Khersonregion and a Russian economist about the effect of the mobilization on theRussian economy,” said Fishman, who briefly spoke after the interview. takes aseat behind one of the tables of the newsdesk.
Sauer, who plans in the near future also the Russian web platform meduza toAmsterdam, has respect for the journalists of TV Rain. “Bee _The Moscow Times_the journalists are anonymous. With TV Rain, they are more at risk becausethey come into the picture with their faces.”
Sindeeva is well aware that it can be dangerous for the journalists of TVRain. “The journalists have left family and friends in Russia on whom Russiacan exert pressure. Also, our people can even get a criminal file, which meansthat they can no longer return to Russia. But they continue. Because this istheir job. Besides, in Russia they were more at risk than here in theNetherlands.”