Following independent journalists fighting for free press in Russia

Austin Tice is an American journalist who disappeared over a decade ago while reporting in Syria. And for years we've been searching for him. This looks like a secret passage. I'm just pushing a door so you can get in. Go, go, go.

Listen to Where is Austin Tice from NPRs Embedded and BBC Radio 4 on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Fresh Air. I'm Tanya Mosley. Four years ago, filmmaker Julia Laktev landed in Moscow to investigate the revival of an old Kremlin weapon, the label Foreign Agent, a phrase with deep roots in Soviet-era repression. It was being applied not only to organizations, but to reporters, bloggers, and human rights groups that had spent decades documenting political persecution.

Armed with an iPhone, Lakhtav embedded herself among a group of young journalists working for TV Rain, Russia's last independent television channel, as well as other independent journalists who were deemed foreign agents. The result is My Undesirable Friends Part 1, Last Air in Moscow, a five and a half hour documentary that has swept major critics awards and and stand as a record of what it looks like when dissent is slowly criminalized in real time. Here's Julia Lochdiv describing how she first entered that world. The world you're about to see no longer exists.

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