Mission Journal: Crimea’s journalists in exile as Russia muzzles free press
“First they asked if my parents had any guns or drugs in the apartment, then they showed my picture to my mother and asked her to identify me,” Anna Andriyevskaya said. The Crimean journalist, who is living in exile in Kiev, was describing a raid on her parents’ home by Russian FSB agents. “Any other…
How patriotism with a Cold War tinge is damaging Crimea’s press
“You should move to Kiev,” I was trying to persuade a friend of mine to leave Crimea. I first met him at the time when cassettes were used in voice recorders, there were no e-mail addresses on business cards, and people preferred to make acquaintances in bars, not online. He asked me not to make…
Russian journalist detained, beaten in eastern Ukraine
New York, June 17, 2015–A correspondent for the independent Moscow-based Novaya Gazeta was obstructed and briefly detained by the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, according to news reports. Pavel Kanygin, a special correspondent for the newspaper, said he was beaten and interrogated in custody and then forced to leave the…
CPJ calls on Ukraine to not revoke Inter broadcasting license
New York, May 29, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Ukrainian authorities to allow national television channel Inter to continue broadcasting freely and to investigate why its signal has been jammed. Parliamentary criticism of the station has led the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council of Ukraine to conduct a review of Inter’s license,…
Media wars create information vacuum in Ukraine
More than a year after the December 2013 mass attack against journalists at Kiev’s Maidan Square, which coincided with the Ukrainian police’s violent dispersal of protesters rallying against the policies of then-President Viktor Yanukovych, the press in the beleaguered nation continue the battle for survival. The biggest problem remains impunity in attacks against journalists.
Pro-Russia journalist shot dead in Ukraine
New York, April 16, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Ukrainian authorities to identify the motive in the murder of Oles Buzina, former editor of the independent news website Segodnya, in Kiev early today. Buzina was gunned down outside of his home by two masked men who fled the scene, according to news reports.…
Authorities in Crimea should allow Ukrainian outlets to broadcast freely
New York, March 24, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in Crimea to allow television and radio outlets based in Ukraine to broadcast in the region, following a statement made by Sergey Aksyonov, the Russia-appointed prime minister in Crimea, indicating that Ukrainian broadcasters that have been taken off the air will not be…