New York, July 23, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned Tuesday’s sentencing of exiled journalist and writer Mikhail Zygar to 8 ½ years in jail in absentia, on charges of spreading “fake” information about the Russian military in Ukraine, and called on Russian authorities to stop harassing journalists in exile.
“The punitive sentence handed down by Russian authorities to exiled journalist Mikhail Zygar is the latest in a long list of repressive actions against independent voices,” said CPJ Director of Advocacy and Communications Gypsy Guillén Kaiser. “Russian authorities must immediately cease their transnational repression of journalists who report truthfully on the war in Ukraine.”
The case against Zygar, the former editor-in-chief of the now-exiled Russian broadcaster Dozhd TV (TV Rain) and a CPJ 2014 International Press Freedom Awardee, stems from his 2022 Instagram post about the Bucha massacre in Ukraine.
In April, a Moscow court ordered Zygar be arrested in absentia.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the country’s authorities have harassed several exiled journalists over their reporting on the war.