02 November 2024

November 2 – International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists

November 2 is marked worldwide as the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists. This date was established by the UN General Assembly in 2013 to recognize the far-reaching consequences of impunity, particularly concerning crimes against journalists.

Within the first year of Crimea’s occupation, Russia completely purged the peninsula’s information space of independent and dissident journalists. Freedom of speech was systematically eradicated through abductions, persecution, intimidation, and both criminal and administrative prosecution of journalists and bloggers. Crimea turned into a “peninsula of fear,” surrounded by a wall of silence.

Following the expulsion of Ukrainian media and the blocking of television channels, radio, and websites, citizen journalism began to thrive on the peninsula. Ordinary citizens began actively using social media to share photos from courtrooms in political prisoner cases, live broadcasts from search and mass arrest sites, and interviews with those affected by illegal actions of the occupiers. These citizen journalists became virtually the only independent source of information in Crimea.

With the onset of the full-scale invasion, the situation deteriorated further as the Russian parliament passed a new law on “liability for discrediting the Russian armed forces,” expanding restrictions not only on journalists but also on citizen journalists and any concerned voices.

By 2019, the ZMINA Human Rights Center and the Crimean Human Rights Group had documented over 350 incidents of media persecution. According to CrimeaSOS, at least 21 journalists have faced politically motivated criminal prosecution and been convicted in occupied Crimea.

We want to remind the world of their names: Iryna Danylovych, Osman Arifmemetov, Oleksii Bessarabov, Tymur Ibrahimov, Remzi Bekirov, Vilen Temerianov, Marlen (Suleiman) Asanov, Rustem Sheikhaliiev, Server Mustafaiev, Vladyslav Yesypenko, Amet Suleimanov, Asan Akhtemov, Ruslan Suleimanov, Seiran Saliiev, and Dmytro Shtyblikov. 

Thousands of Ukrainian citizens in temporarily occupied territories have been persecuted for journalistic activities and expressions of free speech. We condemn the actions of the occupation administrations and demand the immediate release of detained journalists who have become political prisoners due to their work!