Penza, 6 February 2018. PenzaNews. Representatives of opposition held one-person protests near the building of the broadcasting company Express in Markina street in Penza within the framework of the campaign against suppression and misinterpretation of facts by the mass media that work in the territory of the region.

Photo: Leftpenza.ru

Three representatives of the Penza regional Left Front department – the coordinators Victor Khomets, Sergei Nosko and the press secretary Sergei Padalkin, who had become a member of the Federal Council and Executive Committee of the movement last week – were among those who participated in the campaign.

They took turns standing at the entrance holding banners reading "We are against censorship and lies on TV!", "Stop distorting facts!", "It is as clear as a day, why are you afraid to tell the truth!" and "If you constantly lie – your nose will grow!"

In addition, the representative of people's patriotic forces Alexander Frolenkov and the oppositionist Ruslan Barmakov also held one-person protests.

They were holding banners reading "Stop suppressing facts!" and "Carry out sanitary works on the channel!"

The content of the latter banner had something in common with the answer of the Penza vice mayor Vladimir Popkov, who had previously reported about a denial to endorse a full-fledged protest near the broadcasting company Express, in particular, due to planned sanitary works near the building.

According to the activists, neither employees of public utilities nor journalists of the broadcasting company carried out the cleaning. There were only two policemen on duty at the scene.

Journalists of the TV channel Express, the radio station Ekho Penzy and the Internet medium Penza-Press talked to the protesters. Sergei Padalkin explained to them what had caused the campaign and what objectives the organizers pursued.

He also mentioned several examples of suppressing events by a number of Penza mass media. Among them the activist mentioned the third rally of construction investors and the arrest of Sergei Nosko, authorized representative of the candidate for the Presidency of the Russian Federation Pavel Grudinin.

Sergei Padalkin suggested that the desire "not to notice" problematic issues is due to financial dependence of the mass media – their executives are afraid to lose contracts from the government and advertisers.

The media holding Express includes such TV channels as Express and REN Penza, the radio stations Ekho Penza and Express, as well as the mass medium Penza-Press.

Stepan Parfenov is the general director of the broadcasting company.