Russia / Europe & Central Asia

Paris, May 24, 2022 – Russian authorities should immediately drop all charges against exiled Russian journalists Ruslan Leviev and Michael Nacke, remove them from the wanted list, and allow independent reporting on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday. On Wednesday, May 18, the Basmanny Court in Moscow ordered the arrest…

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine presents a danger not only for reporters operating in the war zone. The campaign could also pose a broader threat to press freedoms and other civil liberties if it brings the Kremlin closer to its dream of creating a domestically controlled internet. Russia’s internet regulator, Rozkomnadzor, has long been able to…

Paris, May 18, 2022 – The Russian State Duma should withdraw a draft law that would facilitate the arbitrary shutdown of media outlets and increase the number of journalists prosecuted for sharing information, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. The State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s legislature, is set to consider legislation that…

Paris, May 11, 2022 — Russian authorities should drop all charges and stop harassing seven Sota.Vision and Skat Media journalists and let the media work freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. Between May 7 and May 9, amid Russia’s Victory Day celebrations, at least seven journalists were targeted by Russian authorities with home…

Paris, May 6, 2022 – Russian authorities should drop their investigation into journalist Ilya Ber and let the press freely cover the war in Ukraine, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. On Thursday, May 5, local media reported that the Ministry of Internal Affairs department in Moscow’s Preobrazhenskoye district had launched a probe into…

Paris, May 3, 2022 – Russian authorities in Crimea must immediately disclose any information concerning the whereabouts of journalist Iryna Danilovich, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday. On the morning of April 29, Danilovich failed to return home from her work at a medical center in the village of Vladyslavivka, in Russian-occupied Crimea, according…

Paris, April 27, 2022 — Russian authorities should immediately drop all charges against journalists Maria Ponomarenko and Ilya Krasilshchik, release Ponomarenko from custody, and stop persecuting members of the press for allegedly spreading so-called “fakes” about Russia’s war on Ukraine, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. On March 4, President Vladimir Putin enacted amendments…

Paris, April 14, 2022 — Russian authorities should immediately drop all charges against the management of Listok newspaper and Novy Fokus magazine’s chief editor Mikhail Afanasyev, and allow the press to work freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. On Wednesday, April 13, law enforcement in Gorno-Altaysk, the capital of Altai republic in southern…

As Russia wages an information war alongside its physical war in Ukraine, tech companies have responded with measures small and large, from reducing the visibility of propagandistic social media posts to blocking Russian state-affiliated media, to going beyond international sanctions by pulling out of the country altogether. Meanwhile, Ukrainian journalists, citizens, and officials have used…

New York, April 12, 2022 – In response to a Russian court’s sentencing of four journalists from the student-run online magazine DOXA to two years each of correctional labor, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement of condemnation: “Russian authorities’ sentencing of four student journalists to two years each of correctional labor is…