Marokhovskaya and Dolinina live in Prague, along with most of the editorial staff of iStories. Credit: Freepik.
New York/Prague, Sept 22 (CTK) – The international Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is calling on the Czech authorities to act after two Russian opposition journalists living in Prague, Alesya Marokhovskaya and Irina Dolinina, received a series of threats sent to investigative website iStories (Important Stories).
Prague police spokesman Jan Danek said they were aware of the threats and were investigating the matter. “At this moment, we cannot be more specific for tactical reasons,” Danek told CTK.
Marokhovskaya and Dolinina live in Prague, along with most of the editorial staff of iStories, the CPJ noted. The portal’s staff moved to the Czech Republic after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, due to strict Russian laws that severely restricted media freedom shortly after the invasion began.
Threatening messages sent to the portal about the two journalists include the names of the streets where the two women live and details of their travel plans. One message even mentions a dog belonging to one of the journalists.
“May your nits from the streets of (name) and (name) not sleep in peace!” one of the threats reads. “Rest assured, you can’t hide from us anywhere. We know your scumbag ran away like a rat in terror, we will find her elsewhere. She’s not anywhere to go and she’ll have to answer for every lie and evil thing she’s said. For every word she’s said. We’ll find her wherever she walks her wheezing dog,” read another.
Another message attempted to discourage the two journalists from attending a conference in Gothenburg, Sweden, even including details of the flights and hotels the journalists were planning to use.
buj/dr, mr/hol
