Russian state TV channel falsely claims Ivan Golunov was intoxicated during his arrest before issuing non-correction in lightly revised segment

The state-owned television channel Rossiya-24 claimed falsely in its initial coverage of Meduza correspondent Ivan Golunov’s arrest that medical staff found signs of intoxication when they examined the journalist. Simultaneously, the channel displayed an official form in which the word “not” was clearly inserted among the words “clinical evidence was found.” The channel’s editor-in-chief promised to correct the error.

When a new version of the segment aired, it claimed that the news of Golunov’s intoxication had come directly from police, not from the police’s written form, while the form only contradicted their words in a “relatively unclear handwritten correction.” The new segment does not include any form of apology for the previous version’s falsehood.