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…
Russia-Ukraine watch
How the war is affecting press freedom in the region Updated June 16, 2022 Russia’s February 24 full-scale invasion of Ukraine marked a sharp escalation in threats to press freedom in the region and beyond. Journalists in Ukraine have been killed covering the war, while many of their Russian counterparts have fled or faced persecution….
Russian court sentences Crimean journalist Remzi Bekirov to 19 years in prison
New York, March 11, 2022 – In response to Russia’s recent sentencing of Crimean journalist Remzi Bekirov to 19 years in prison, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement of condemnation: “Russian authorities should immediately release Remzi Bekirov and all other Crimean journalists who became hostages of an occupying force in their homeland,”…
Opinion: How the West can help the media victims of Putin’s war
Russia’s independent journalists are fleeing. That’s not only a tragedy for Russians but also for the rest of us who need to know what the increasingly isolated leader of a nuclear superpower is doing. Since sending tanks into Ukraine on February 24, President Vladimir Putin has threatened to jail anyone who dares question the invasion…
Russian forces in Ukraine detain and harass journalists; authorities clamp down on Russian media
Paris, March 10, 2022 – Russian authorities must halt their campaign to stifle the domestic press, and the country’s armed forces should immediately cease harassing journalists covering the invasion of Ukraine, and ensure that the media can work freely and safely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. This week, Russian forces in Ukraine have…