President's Mission in Crimea: Russia unlawfully detained 16 journalists in the peninsula

As of June 4, 2024, the Russian Federation has unlawfully imprisoned 218 people, at least 16 of whom are journalists, citizen journalists and bloggers, reports the Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

The list of imprisoned journalists who were reporting on human rights violations and freedom of speech issues in occupied Crimea: Iryna Danylovych, Osman Arifmemetov, Oleksiy Bessarabov, Timur Ibrahimov, Remzi Bekirov, Vilen Temeryanov, Marlen (Suleiman) Asanov, Nariman Celal, Rustem Sheikhaliyev, Server Mustafayev, Vladyslav Yesypenko, Amet Suleimanov, Asan Akhtemov, Ruslan Suleimanov, Seyran Saliev and Dmytro Shtyblikov.

The President's Mission emphasized that Russia crushed the media landscape of the peninsula almost immediately after occupying it.

"The policy of destroying independent media deprives the Crimeans of ​​access to alternative information, instead creating a propaganda bubble. After the full-scale invasion of 2022, obtaining objective information from the occupied Crimea became even more difficult, and by amending the law, the Russian Federation made media oppression and making lists of so-called 'extremists' significantly easier for themselves", said the President's Mission.

Earlier, the Russia-controlled Kyiv District Court of Simferopol considered the appeal against the verdict fining the human rights activist and journalist Lutfiye Zudieva and upheld the ruling to impose an administrative penalty on her. Lutfiye Zudieva was posting about the hearings in the "Bilohirsk group" case on her private channel as a private person.