Russian newspaper Pskovskaya Guberniya searched; journalists flee amid home raids
Paris, March 23, 2022 — Russian authorities should stop harassing independent journalists and let all members of the press work freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. On March 5, officers with the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Center for Combating Extremism and the OMON special riot police raided the office of Pskovskaya Guberniya, an…
Russian journalist Andrey Novashov detained, charged with spreading ‘fake’ information
Berlin, March 22, 2022 — Russian authorities should immediately release journalist Andrey Novashov, drop all charges against him, and refrain from threatening journalists with prison over their work and commentary, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday. On Monday, March 21, authorities in the Siberian region of Kemerovo detained Novashov, a reporter with the U.S. Congress-funded…
Russian government expands law banning ‘fakes’
New York, March 22, 2022 – In response to the newly proposed legislation penalizing the distribution of “fakes” concerning the Russian government’s activities abroad, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement: “Russian legislators and President Vladimir Putin should drop new amendments banning so-called ‘fakes’ and allow free reporting about the war in Ukraine,”…
Opinion: Putin tolerated some critical voices in his 22-year assault on Russian media. His war in Ukraine ends even that.
On the morning after Boris Yeltsin stunned the world by resigning and turning over the Russian presidency to Vladimir Putin, The New York Times published a “man in the news” column that struggled to define the new leader. Putin was a man who “would never deceive you,” promised his political mentor and former St. Petersburg…
Ukrainian journalist Oleh Baturyn released 8 days after going missing
New York, March 20, 2022 – The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of Ukrainian journalist Oleh Baturyn and renews calls for anyone with information about the whereabouts of missing reporter Viktoria Roshchina to come forward immediately, CPJ said in a statement Sunday. Baturyn was missing for eight days after he went to meet…
Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchina missing since March 11
Paris, March 18, 2022 – In response to the disappearance of Hromadske journalist Viktoria Roshchina and reports that she is being held by Russian forces in Ukraine, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement on Friday: “Viktoria Roshchina is now the second journalist reported missing since the beginning of the Russian invasion,” said…
Calling the war ‘war’: Meduza’s Galina Timchenko bucks Russia’s censorship on Ukraine
The Kremlin was infuriated by editor Galina Timchenko’s coverage of Russia’s incursion into Ukraine. So it pressured her boss to fire her. Timchenko left Moscow with much of the staff from her popular website, moving to Riga, Latvia, where they could work free of Kremlin censorship. That may sound like today’s news, but it actually…
Brent Renaud brought heart and compassion to his filmmaking
Brent Renaud was renowned not just for his war reporting, but for the compassion he brought to his work. From Iraq to Somalia to Mexico, his videography explored human vulnerability and human connection at the worst of times. A U.S. soldier in Fallujah calls his mother on Mother’s Day; a physical therapist coaxes a young…
‘Hard, emotional and painful’: Journalists in Ukraine on covering Russia’s invasion
The shooting death of U.S. reporter Brent Renaud in Irpin, outside Kyiv, on Sunday, March 13, underscored the extraordinary dangers facing journalists covering Russia’s war in Ukraine. Renaud was the second journalist killed since Russia’s February 24 invasion; other reporters have been shot at, shelled, robbed, and detained by Russian forces as they cover the…
CPJ joins letter calling for sanctions on Russia not to restrict internet access
On March 10, the Committee to Protect Journalists joined 40 other civil society groups in a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden, calling for his administration to ensure that sanctions imposed on Russia in retaliation for the country’s invasion of Ukraine do not interfere with Russians’ access to the internet. The letter notes that, as…