Parliament approves the Appeal to international organizations to release  journalists captured and illegally detained by Russia

Yesterday, on April 24, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a Resolution — Appeal to the  the United Nations, parliaments and governments of the European Union and NATO member states, the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Federation of Journalists, the European Federation of Journalists, the International NGO Committee to Protect Journalists, the International NGO Reporters Without Borders to ensure the release and return to Ukraine of captured and illegally detained journalists, including the civilian journalists. 

This Resolution urges Ukraine`s international partners and international organizations to increase political and diplomatic pressure on Russia to protect the rights of the journalists, ensure their safety and return captured and illegally detained journalists. The text emphasizes the importance of the work of journalists, media workers and citizen journalists in informing the public about violations of national and international law. 

The Deputy Chairperson of the Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy and the co-author of the Resolution Yevheniia Kravchuk mentioned that this issue will be raised at the sessions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

According to the Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea 16 journalists, civic journalists and bloggers have become victims of Russian repression in the occupied Crimea alone. In particular, the Resolution mentions the names of Iryna Danylovych and Vladyslav Yesypenko, journalists detained on the peninsula.