Russian TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, known for delivering a live on-air anti-war protest in March, has been again convicted of "discrediting" the country's armed forces in social-media posts condemning Moscow's actions in Ukraine.
The Cheryomushki district court in Moscow on August 8 ordered the former editor of Channel One TV to pay a fine of 40,000 rubles ($660) for her latest online posts protesting Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine, which was launched unprovoked in February.
Ovsyannikova's lawyers insisted that the latest charges be returned to prosecutors, saying that their client was wrongfully informed about the case against her because investigators had sent the papers to the wrong address.
Ovsyannikova said at the hearing that she learned about the case from other journalists while she was abroad.
Last week, Moscow's Meshchansky district court fined Ovsyannikova 50,000 rubles ($825) on the same charge of discrediting the military in connection with her one-person protest in front of the Kremlin in early July in which she held a poster saying that Russian President Vladimir "Putin is a murderer, his soldiers are fascists" and displaying photos of children killed in Ukraine.
She was not detained at the time but was arrested days later on July 17 at her home in Moscow.
Ovsyannikova gained international recognition on March 14 when she burst onto the set of Channel One's Vremya news program holding a poster reading: "Stop the war. Don't believe propaganda. They are lying to you" in Russian. She also shouted: "Stop the war. No to war."
Ovsyannikova was a producer with Channel One at the time of her protest. She was later detained and fined 30,000 rubles by a court for calling for illegal protests.
Ovsyannikova resigned from Channel One and spent several months abroad, including in Ukraine, repeatedly expressing her condemnation of the war.
For three months she trained at the German publication Die Welt. In early July, she announced her return to Russia.
Russia has stepped up detentions and prosecution of journalists, activists, and others who challenge the Kremlin line on its invasion of Ukraine, which it calls a "special operation" and not a war.