PACE to present a report on journalists detained by Russia before the end of 2025

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will present a report on the journalists detained in Russian prisons by the end of 2025.

This was announced by the PACE representative Roberto Fasino at the 26th meeting of the Council of Europe Steering Committee on Media and the Information Society (CDMSI), which is taking place in Strasbourg, according to the website of the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting.

Journalists who have been or still are detained by Russia

The PACE Committee Secretary emphasized that the report would be prepared in a fast-track procedure.

“A report on the journalists detained in Russian prisons has been registered. It will be prepared in a fast-track procedure and presented by the end of next year,” Fasino said.

The report was initiated by Ukrainian MP Yevheniya Kravchuk, who chairs the PACE Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media.

The NCTRB reminded that targeting journalists and media workers is part of Russia’s policy aimed at silencing any information that could reveal its crimes.

The media regulator cited the data by the Institute of Mass Information on at least 112 foreign and Ukrainian journalists who have been detained or taken hostage by Russian forces since 2014. 17 journalists from Crimea are still in Russian custody. A total of over 50 cases of journalists being detained by Russia have been recorded since 2022.

At least 30 civilian Ukrainian media professionals and two journalists turned combatants are currently in Russian custody, according to the Institute of Mass Information.

On October 2, 2024, the PACE adopted the Resolution "Missing persons, prisoners of war and civilians in captivity as a result of the war of aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine". The Resolution contains the first separate mention of detained journalists. The IMI was involved in the preparation of the part on detained media professionals.