"I want Russia to hear me, that people learn to distinguish propaganda (...), stop being zombified", justified Zhanna Agalakova during a press conference organized by the organization of defense of RSF (Reporters Without Borders) journalists in Paris.

"I hesitated a lot" before speaking, "but I don't think I have any other choice," she added, tears in her eyes.

In mid-March, another journalist, Marina Ovsiannikova, made an impression by bursting into Pervy Kanal's television news and brandishing a sign to denounce the offensive in Ukraine.

"In recent days, we have observed a stir within these propaganda media", with "a certain number of resignations, which are difficult to quantify", declared the secretary general of RSF, Christophe Deloire, alongside Ms Agalakova.

Russian TV journalist Zhanna Agalakova (g) and the secretary general of the Reporters Without Borders association Christophe Deloire at the organization's headquarters in Paris, March 22, 2022 Christophe ARCHAMBAULT AFP

Correspondent in Paris for Europe of the public television channel Pervy Kanal, Ms Agalakova says she resigned on March 3, a week after the invasion of Ukraine.

She describes a Russian media system "which only conveys the Kremlin's point of view".

"Sensitive Cord"

"Our news doesn't show the country, we don't see Russia. We only see the country's first man, what he ate, who he shook hands with, we even saw him shirtless. But we do not know if he is married, if he has children," she said, avoiding to pronounce the name of President Vladimir Putin.

"Power tries to strangle the independent media" and the absence of a "free press" leads to the "suicide of a country", she estimated.

To justify its action in Ukraine, "the power played on an extremely sensitive chord for the Russians" by claiming to fight against Nazi groups, underlined Ms. Agalakova.

Because the country remains traumatized by the Second World War and its "27 million dead" Soviet: "When, in Russia, we hear the word Nazi, we have only one reaction: we must destroy that. It is a manipulation, a huge lie".

Ms Agalakova has not worked on Russian soil since 2005. After presenting the news, she became a correspondent in Paris that year, then took the same position in New York in 2013 and then returned to France.

"I thought that by telling about life in Europe, and especially in Paris, I could avoid being a propagandist," she said.

Russian journalist Zhanna Agalakova (c) at a press conference at Reporters Without Borders headquarters in Paris, March 22, 2022 Christophe ARCHAMBAULT AFP

According to her, things got complicated in 2014, with the start of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in Crimea and the Donbass region.

At the time, she was a correspondent in New York.

"I was no longer immune to propaganda. I was only supposed to speak about negative things about the United States, such as abused adopted children," she explained.

"Hostages"

"I didn't lie, every fact was real. But take real facts, mix them together and you'll end up with a big lie," she continued.

"Many journalists, producers or people who work in the media think like me," she said.

"It's easy to accuse them, to ask why they don't resign, don't protest (...) But those who are there have families, elderly parents, children, houses to pay for. They are hostages of the situation,” she argued.

She criticized the sanctions imposed on Russia by Western countries: "It mainly affects the middle class, people who share democratic values. In this story, you lose your allies".

© 2022 AFP