Vice News documentary shows viewers inside Argun prison in Chechnya, where gay men were ...

Vice News documentary shows viewers inside Argun prison in Chechnya, where gay men were ...
- "We had been working on this project with a video journalist in Russia who had been cultivating a relationship with Kheda Saratova, the head of Ramzan Kadyrov's Human Rights council," Hassan told Journalism.co.uk.

"I think because of the international pressure on Chechnya in the media, they have been feeling the heat a little bit more, especially with the Russian investigation team looking into the allegations made against them, so I think they wanted to explore a different way of responding to this.

"They wanted to say, 'come in and we will show you the locations of where these alleged tortures took place and prove we have nothing to hide'."

However, Hassan explained that Vice News' access to the prison was arranged through regional authorities who were keen to demonstrate their innocence, saying they don't believe gay people exist there. Even though the journalists were able to operate freely in the region, their whereabouts were closely monitored during the course of the shoot.



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