As Moscow intensifies its onslaught against Ukraine, the Kremlin continues to tighten its control of how the war is reported inside Russia. CPJ has documented numerous detentions, searches of media outlets, shutdowns, and deployment of repressive new laws against independent Russian journalists. On April 22, several news outletsreported that Russia’s justice ministry had added eight people to its media register of “individuals labeled as foreign agents.” The list includes former Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow) chief editor Alexei Venediktov and Russian opposition politician and journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who is facing charges for allegedly sharing false information about the Russian army.
In Ukraine, CPJ has confirmed that at least seven journalists have died while covering the war and is investigating whether others — including two whose bodies were found after Russian forces withdrew from occupied areas — were killed because of their work. (Photo shows Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, speaking with journalists at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, on April 26, 2022. Credit: AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Russia charges journalists with disseminating ‘fakes’ about the military; reporter Maria Ponomarenko detained
Meduzareports that unidentified individuals sprayed graffiti on the house and car of Russian journalists Ekaterina Malysheva, of Takie Dela, and her husband Yevgeny Malyshev, of 7×7, in Penza
A National Union of Journalists in Ukraine representative speaks about the state of journalism in Berdyansk, a southeast port city that has been under Russian occupation for almost two months. “Berdyansk was once a media city…All this information diversity almost disappeared in February-March 2022.”
SPILKA.News and MIG newspaper report that journalists from the Ukrainian news website RIA Melitopol have received anonymous threats for covering the war
Meduzareports that explosions in the Mayak settlement, in Moldova’s separatist region of Trans-Dniester, disabled two radio antennas that were broadcasting Russian radio
Novaya Gazetareports that a Moscow court fined Wikimedia Foundation, which supports Wikipedia, 3 million rubles (US$40,000) for failing to remove five articles about the war
People face off with Kentucky State Troopers during a protest against the deaths of Breonna Taylor by Louisville police and George Floyd by Minneapolis police, in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. May 29, 2020. REUTERS/Bryan Woolston – RC2PYG9106R3
People face off with Kentucky State Troopers during a protest against the deaths of Breonna Taylor by Louisville police and George Floyd by Minneapolis police, in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. May 29, 2020. REUTERS/Bryan Woolston – RC2PYG9106R3
A woman takes part in a protest outside the CNB Radio headquarters in Caracas August 1, 2009. The first of 34 radio stations ordered shut by the Venezuelan government went off the air on Saturday, part of President Hugo Chavez’s drive to extend his socialist revolution to the media. The banner reads, “Where is your freedom of information?” REUTERS/Jorge Silva (VENEZUELA POLITICS CONFLICT MEDIA) – GM1E582029G01
On March 15, 2022, unidentified attackers shot and killed Linares, the co-founder and editor of news website Monitor Michoacán, at his home in Zitácuaro. Linares is the second Monitor Michoacán staff member killed in 2022. On January 31, unknown assailants shot and killed 55-year old Roberto Toledo Barrera.
In the days after Toledo’s killing, Linares received death threats over his reporting and was enrolling in the Mexican Federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists. The Michoacán state prosecutor’s office said it had opened an investigation under its protocols for crimes against journalists.
