Meduza (Russian: Медуза, named after the Greek mythological figureMedusa[3]) is a Russian- and English-languageindependent[9] news website, headquartered inRiga,Latvia. It was founded in 2014 by a group of former employees of the then-independentLenta.ru news website.[10][11][12] Free mobile applications foriOS,Windows Phone, andAndroid became the basis of the media.[13]
Timchenko toldForbes that the decision to baseMeduza inLatvia was made since "right now, establishing an independent Russian language publishing house in Latvia is possible, while in Russia it is not".[15] Moreover, Timchenko stated: "We understood that in Russia, most likely, they would not let us work."[16]
Russian businessman and formeroligarchMikhail Khodorkovsky and telecommunications magnateBoris Zimin had been considered as passive investors, but they parted ways "for strategic and operational reasons".[15] Timchenko said Khodorkovsky had wanted 100 percent control ofMeduza, which she considered unacceptable.[17] For financial reasons, Timchenko and her partner at Amond & Smith Ltd, Sergey Nazarkin, basedMeduza in Latvia.[18]
In February 2015, the website also launched an English-language version. In January 2016, Timchenko handed over the role of chief editor to her deputyIvan Kolpakov.[19]
In August 2017,Meduza started a partnership with the American news websiteBuzzFeed News.[20] The partnership included publishing each other's materials, sharing experiences, and carrying out and publishing joint investigations.[21]
On October 20, 2018, at the outlet's annual celebration,Meduza chief editor and co-founder Ivan Kolpakov reportedly groped an employee's wife, saying, "You're the only one at this party I can harass and get away with it."[22][23] Kolpakov was temporarily suspended untilMeduza publicly censured and reinstated him. The incident triggered a social media backlash.[24] On November 9 Kolpakov announced his resignation saying that "it is the only way to stop the crisis engulfing the website and minimize the damage to its reputation".[25] He was reinstated as chief editor on March 11, 2019.[2]
In 2019,Meduza started the English podcast The Naked Pravda, which highlights howMeduza's top reporting intersects with the wider research and expertise that exists about Russia.[26]
In May 2022,Helsingin Sanomat started publishing individualMeduza articles translated in Finnish.[27]
In February 2023, Timchenko's iPhone was targeted withPegasus spyware. The attack occurred a day before a conference of exiled independent Russian media that was held in Berlin and which Timchenko attended; her phone could have been used to eavesdrop on the journalists' conversations during the conference. This attack is the first confirmed instance of Pegasus being used against a Russian journalist. It is unclear which state carried out the attack.[28][29] Several employees of other independent Russian outlets,Current Time TV andNovaya Gazeta, received notifications from Apple that "state-sponsored attackers" may have attacked their phones as well.[29]
In February 2025 it was reported that Meduza was sponsored byUSAID: "Meduza, which had received roughly 15 percent of its annual budget from programs funded by the U.S. government, has been thrust into a financial crisis after the Trump administration abruptly stopped all foreign assistance from the United States Agency for International Development and other federal agencies this month".[30] This forced Meduza to start a campaign to attract more financial supporters.[31]
By 2014Meduza had a team of around 20 journalists.[12] No Latvian journalists contribute to the project.
Since March 2015,Meduza has published a daily news called "Evening Meduza".[16]
In September 2022, it announced the creation of English email dispatch "The Beet", aiming to amplify "local perspectives" from Central/Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, "without centering Moscow".[32] Its debut article was titled 'Suing Gorbachev' and explored Soviet violence in the Baltic states underMikhail Gorbachev.[33]
Three months after opening,Meduza had 1.3 million monthly readers of its Internet publication.[34] In 2017,Meduza had 7.5 million readers per month and 2 million followers on social media.[35] In 2020,Meduza was the leading Russian site in social media links, according toMedialogia [ru], a company that monitors and analyzes exclusively Russian sites on media and social networks.[36] By March 2022,Meduza's website had between 12 and 18 million monthly visitors.[17] The majority of readers are younger than 45.[37]
Meduza grants open source access to all their coverage of the war in Ukraine under a Creative Commons license. The articles can be reprinted in full (CC BY 4.0, does not apply to photos).[38]
Meduza aims to fill a market niche that exists due to "a long list of forbidden topics which Russian media do not raise for various reasons—due to direct and indirect censorship".[15]
The day after it was launched (in October 2014),Meduza was blocked inKazakhstan, probably due to an article about the city ofOskemen (Ust-Kamenogorsk).[39][40]
By October 2016, access to the site has also been blocked inUzbekistan.[40]
By 15 April 2016, Meduza reported installing technical measures to circumvent censorship with their mobile apps.[clarification needed][41][42]
In June 2019,Meduza journalistIvan Golunov was arrested by Russian police for claimed drug offences.[43] Colleagues and friends of Golunov said they believed the charges to be fabricated, motivated by his investigations into corruption.[44] Following a public outcry, Golunov was released, and five police officers were fired and later arrested.[45]
On 23 April 2021, theRussian Ministry of Justice designatedMeduza as a "foreign agent".[46][47] In response, theEuropean Union rejected the decision, saying this restriction "goes against Russia's international obligations and human rights commitments".[48][49][50][51] Russia's actions caused financial difficulties forMeduza, as they stopped many advertisers from Russia, which were the portal's main source of income, from displaying their ads atMeduza's pages. This resulted in an international campaign to collect funds to ensureMeduza's survival through donations and buying subscriptions.[52][53][54] Timchenko said the designation made it even harder to obtain sources that are willing to talk to the reporters – specifically without the protection of anonymity.[37]
Meduza published an editorial condemning theRussian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022;[55] due to its coverage of the invasion, the site was blocked on the territory of Russia byRoskomnadzor among other news websites due to the "systematic dissemination of fakes".[56] Despite the actions of Roskomnadzor,Meduza managed to maintain most of its Russian readers, but the economic sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine also hitMeduza's finances, as the sanctions made it nearly impossible to send donations from Russia and 30,000 members across the Russian border were suddenly unable to donate to the website. As a result,Meduza launched a campaign seeking donations from new supporters outside of Russia.[17][57] On March 11,Reporters Without Borders announced amirror site[58] has been set up.[59] Russian journalist Ilya Krasilshchik, the former publisher ofMeduza, was charged under the"fake news" law for denouncing the war in Ukraine.[60]
On 26 January 2023, theRussian prosecutor-general’s office designatedMeduza as an "undesirable organization" in Russia.[61] In March 2023, Timchenko said that while "Russian propaganda has enormous financial sources" and the government can spend billions to spread disinformation,Meduza has a "little crowdfunding campaign by people of good will around the world, and some support from international organizations".[37]
Meduza has implemented a number of technical solutions to bypass Russian censorship, including reliance on mobile apps and the ability to save articles as PDF files.[62]
In December 2022, the independent outletProekt criticized Meduza for publishing, on numerous occasions, unverified claims coming from unnamed officials in the Putin's administration. The number of "exclusive articles" coming from such sources has significantly increased, especially since the start of theRussian invasion of Ukraine.[63]
2016 - Ilnur Sharafiev received theRedkollegia award for the article18 thousand rubles per person published inMeduza.[64][65]
2022 - Galina Timchenko received theCommittee to Protect Journalists' (CJP) Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award asMeduza's CEO and publisher for "extraordinary and sustained achievement in the cause of press freedom".[37][66]
2022 - TheFritt Ord Prize for courageous, independent and fact-based journalism.[67] "Prix Spécial" du Prix Franco-Allemand du Journalisme/Deutsch-Französischer Journalistenpreis.[68]
^Lavrinenko, Olga (2021). Bessant, Judith; Mejia Mesinas, Analicia; Pickard, Sarah (eds.).When Students Protest. Universities in the global North. Lanham, Maryland:Rowman & Littlefield. p. 130.ISBN978-1-78661-181-9.OCLC1260343703.
^"Федеральные СМИ - 2020 год" [Federal media - 2020].mlg.ru (in Russian). 28 January 2021.Archived from the original on 21 April 2021. Retrieved27 April 2021.
Media related toMeduza at Wikimedia Commons