IMI tracks and verifies instances of Russia murdering, wounding, detaining, torturing media personnel, targeting media offices, destroying media infrastructure. Each case is not a mere number in a report: it is a person, a family, a life ruined. And very often it the question of fair punishment for these crimes remains open. How can we as a civil society, as a state, do more than just document this?
To me, the initiative by [MPs] Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, Yevhenia Kravchuk, and Mykyta Poturayev to create a temporary parliamentary commission to investigate Russia’s crimes against journalists is a vital step that is a direct continuation of the work carried out by the Institute of Mass Information (IMI). To us, this is a chance to turn monitoring and advocacy into tangible results in specific proceedings, and in the future, into specific penalties for Russian criminals.
Moreover, the commission will boost our joint work internationally. When we speak to partners in the EU, NATO, the UN, the OSCE, and international journalistic organisations, it is important for us to show that Ukraine is not just tracking Russia’s crimes but has the political will and the institutional mechanism to investigate them. Then our demands for sanctions and pressure on the Kremlin are based on the state’s legally and politically articulated position.
Finally, to the families of the deceased, to the wounded, and to those who remain imprisoned by Russia, it is important to know that their stories will not be lost. The creation of the commission signals that the state is willing to work together with human rights advocates and the media community to achieve truth and justice.
I support the creation of this commission as a representative of the media community and as the head of an organisation that has been tracking, systematizing, and preventing Russia’s crimes against the media and journalists for years.
Our common task is to ensure that no murdered, wounded, missing, or detained journalist remains a mere number in a report. So that everyone involved in these crimes knows that responsibility is inevitable.