Ukraine Invasion

New York, February 27, 2025—CPJ calls on Russian authorities to drop legal proceedings against 64-year-old Russian journalist Ekaterina Barabash, who is under house arrest and could be jailed for up to 10 years for criticizing Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. On February 25, Ukrainian-born Barabash, a film critic for the independent outlet Republic, was detained…

Berlin, February 11, 2025—After a year that saw Russia increase its pressure on independent media and journalists, authorities are seeking to tighten the squeeze on dissenting voices from March 1 by blocking those designated as “foreign agents’” from access to their earnings. The 2025 law requires those listed by the justice ministry as “persons under…

New York, January 30, 2025—Ukrainian military officers detained three journalists for eight hours on accusations of “illegal border crossing” on January 6 in Sudzha, a Ukrainian-controlled town in Russia’s Kursk region. The journalists — Ukrainian freelance reporter Petro Chumakov, Kurt Pelda, correspondent with Swiss media group CH Media, and freelance camera operator Josef Zehnder — had army…

New York, October 18, 2024—More than 1,500 emails threatening a bomb attack were sent on October 14 to Ukrainian media outlets, government agencies, schools, business centers, and hotels, as well as dozens of Ukrainian embassies abroad. The sender blamed three journalists with U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) — Iryna Sysak, Valeria Yehoshyna,…

Berlin, September 20, 2024—Russian authorities have deployed laws penalizing “foreign agents,” “undesirable” organizations, and those who “discredit” the army to issue fines against 11 journalists, at least five of whom live in exile, and to retaliate against two media outlets in the last two months. The latest figures show that Russia’s crackdown has continued apace…

Russia’s months-long jailing of journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva —released on August 1 as part of a prisoner exchange — was one of the most blatant illustrations of Russia’s muzzling of the press in the wake of its February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The war has precipitated what a representative of the now-shuttered Russian Journalists’ and Media Workers’…

Berlin, June 26, 2024 – The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly condemns the Russian foreign ministry’s Tuesday decision to block access to 81 European media outlets in Russia in response to the EU’s recent ban on four pro-Kremlin media outlets.  “Russian authorities’ blocking of 81 European media outlets betrays their deep-seated fear of truthful…

Update: A Serbian appeals court announced on September 11 that it has sent the extradition case of Belarusian filmmaker Andrey Gnyot for a third review to the Belgrade Higher Court. Gnyot told CPJ on September 12 that he expects the next hearing “will not happen earlier than a month,” saying that “the most dangerous thing” about the…

Berlin, June 7, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists decries Russian authorities’ crackdown on independent media outlets and exiled journalists, and urges them to cease their harassment immediately. On Wednesday, June 5, the Basmanny district court in the capital, Moscow, ordered the arrest in absentia of exiled journalist Dmitry Kolezev, saying that he distributed false information…

New York, May 16, 2024 – Ukrainian authorities must swiftly and transparently investigate recent threats sent to several journalists, including investigative reporter Mykhailo Tkach, with the independent news website Ukrainska Pravda, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. On May 10, Tkach received a message on Telegram from someone claiming to be Oleksandr Slobozhenko, a…