Russia has committed more than 500 crimes against media figures during the full-scale invasion: human rights defenders and activists on the eve of Journalists’ Day

Russia has committed more than 500 crimes against the press and media. These war crimes against media professionals were discussed by human rights activists, heads of media associations and institutions at a press conference organised by the Center for Civil Liberties at Ukraine Crisis Media Center.

The speakers discussed the nature and statistics of war crimes against media professionals, the problem of forced abduction of journalists and the responsibility of those responsible for hundreds of such crimes.

“There are certain professions that are always at the forefront: journalists, people who work with professional media, people who have become journalists, correspondents, photographers. These people are usually the first to get to the territories where events require the most coverage. And it is these people who become one of the first victims of the occupation and aggressive entities, such as the Russian army and Wagner group,” said Oleksandra Romantsova, Executive Director of the Center for Civil Liberties, at the opening of the discussion.

“Journalists are a direct target of the Russian military offensive because they are a threat to Russian propaganda,” said Serhiy Tomilenko, head of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine. According to the data collected by human rights activists and law enforcement officers, a wave of information neutralisation took place in all occupied territories, with attacks on any independent media outlet. According to statistics from the National Union of Journalists, 63 media professionals have been killed during the full-scale war, 40 of them in the Armed Forces, and 14 deaths of journalists were recorded in the performance of their professional duties. “Most media professionals do not go into collaboration, the occupiers bring their propagandists from Russia, they create their own media, and the practice of stealing local media labels is shameful,” added Tomilenko. In response to a number of war crimes, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine has succeeded in depriving Russian journalists of the right to use their journalistic status in the international arena, including the decision to terminate the membership of the Russian Union of Journalists in the International Federation of Journalists.

Svitlana Ostapa, deputy editor-in-chief of Detector Media and chair of the Supervisory Board of UA:PBC, spoke about what happened to Public Broadcasting Suspilne after 24 February 2022. “Since the beginning of the full-scale war, the Suspilne team had to evacuate to Lviv and work there. Many teams from different cities have stopped working. 85 Suspilne employees are defending Ukraine in the Armed Forces and the territorial defense forces, 2 employees were killed, and 1 is in Russian captivity. Svitlana Ostapa spoke about dozens of crimes committed by the Russian military: Russians launched missile and air strikes on TV towers in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Izyum, Lysychansk and other cities, seized TV towers in Melitopol, attempted to jam the signal, attacked the Suspilne website, occupied and looted the premises in Kherson, and damaged many branches and premises. In total, the damage to the Suspilne headquarters amounted to over three million hryvnias.

During her speech, Anna Popova, Project Manager of the Center for Civil Liberties, presented an Interactive Map of Enforced Disappearances of Human Rights Defenders, Journalists, Activists and Local Government Representatives. In particular, according to the Center for Civil Liberties, 16 cases of enforced disappearance of media workers in Ukraine were recorded, 11 of them were released, and 1 person was killed (Max Levin). Most of them are residents of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. Currently, five journalists are being held in Russian prisons without any grounds: Dmitry Khilyuk, Sergey Tsygipa, Irina Danilovich, Irina Levchenko, and Vasily Filimonov. Most often, these people were abducted right from their homes. In addition, at least 15 journalists in the temporarily occupied Crimea are imprisoned on cases fabricated under terrorist articles or articles on possession of weapons or explosives.  “The statistics of abducted journalists is an acute situation. Therefore, I urge you to contact the Centre for Civil Liberties and report abductions of civilians!” the human rights activist emphasised.

Serhiy Movchan, Head of the War Crimes Documentation Department of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, spoke about the prospects of accountability for war crimes against journalists and the activities of the global initiative ‘Tribunal for Putin’ in this area. In particular, the initiative has recorded more than four thousand cases of enforced disappearance of civilians. “Media professionals are among the first targets for the enemy. They become victims of the Russian Federation because they are loyal to their professional activities. Therefore, after the occupation of the cities, they were forced to hide. The invaders took away their equipment and destroyed their communications equipment. It is the journalists who form the evidence block that we will use in the future,” the human rights activist said. According to Movchan, the International Criminal Court and international institutions should consider this issue. National law enforcement agencies, in turn, can already bring war criminals to justice.

The press conference was also attended by relatives of the captured journalists. Thus, the wife of the abducted journalist Serhiy Tsygipa spoke about her efforts to free her husband from captivity. “Our government must ask for help so that the international system can develop a mechanism to free our relatives. We are the only ones fighting now,” said Tsygipa.

In conclusion, the experts agreed that in times of war, the international community should make more efforts to preserve freedom of speech and protect the rights of journalists, as well as to bring to justice those responsible for their violations, as this is the foundation of the democratic world.

Photos are available here.

For reference.

• Since 24 February 2022, more than 500 crimes have been committed against journalists and media by the aggressor country in Ukraine. At least 15 journalists from the temporarily occupied Crimea are imprisoned in cases fabricated under terrorist articles or articles on possession of weapons or explosives.
• The Center for Civil Liberties, together with its partners, initiated a unique system in which human rights organisations across the country document war crimes, including those against journalists, civil society activists, and representatives of local governments.
• The Tribunal for Putin (T4P) is a global initiative created by Ukrainian NGOs in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which has been accompanied by a large number of war crimes from the very beginning. The database currently contains over 41,000 war crimes.
• The Initiative is actively working at the international level to use the existing mechanisms of the UN, Council of Europe, OSCE, EU and the International Criminal Court to stop the crimes and punish the guilty.

For further information, please contact Anna Trushova: tel. 0980883622, anna.trushova@ccl.org.ua