Samizdat app launched in Russia to bypass state censorship

In Russia, five investigative media outlets, such as Proekt (Project), Vazhnye istorii (Important Stories), The Insider, Bellingcat and the team of Alexei Navalny, have launched an app called Samizdat [the term used across the eastern bloc in the Soviet era for disseminating underground publications, often typed or written by hand and passed from reader to reader - ed.] to bypass the blocking of the Russian authorities.

Source: Meduza, a Russian Latvia-based media outlet

Details: The application is available for download in the App Store and on Google Play.

The developers said that the application cannot be blocked by Roskomnadzor [Russian federal executive agency responsible for monitoring, controlling and censoring Russian mass media - ed.]. It allows everyone inside Russia to read the investigations by all media outlets in one place without a VPN.

It should be noted that Samizdat does not have a common editorial policy and management; each team  is responsible for its own publications.

The creators of the application have also called on other independent journalists to join the project by sending an email.

For reference: Vazhnye istorii (Important Stories), The Insider, and Bellingcat have been declared "foreign agents" in Russia. The Insider and Bellingcat are also considered by Russia to be "undesirable organisations".

These media outlets write about the Russian war in Ukraine, about the movement of Russian equipment, about the heavy losses sustained by the Russian army, about how the children of Russian officials live abroad, and about the fact that the sons of Russian officials are avoiding mobilisation.

After the beginning of the war, new laws were adopted in the Russian Federation according to which any person could be declared a "foreign agent".

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