Reporters Without Borders urges the OSCE to demand unconditional release of journalists detained by Russia

The international watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urged the OSCE member states to demand the unconditional release of the 38 journalists detained by Russia, including 19 Ukrainians arrested in unlawfully occupied territories, according to the organization's statement timed to coincide with the two-day OSCE Council meeting  which began in Malta on December 5, attended by 57 member states, including the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

"Even though President Vladimir Putin has been under an ICC arrest warrant since March 2023 and 37 Ukrainian and Russian journalists languishing in Russian prisons and one is under house arrest, Russia is being officially welcomed at an OSCE meeting in Malta.

"Some journalists have disappeared, others are held in undisclosed locations, and a Ukrainian journalist has died in Russian custody. This cannot be 'business as usual.' The Kremlin must be held accountable. OSCE Member States must demand Sergey Lavrov give answers on these detentions and act for the immediate release of these journalists," said Antoine Bernard, RSF’s Director of Advocacy and Assistance.

RSF called on OSCE Group of Friends on the Safety of Journalists to:

• Advocate, through all possible means, for the release of journalists and media workers detained or imprisoned in Russia and in occupied Ukrainian territories;
• Urge Russian authorities to provide precise and updated information to international bodies and families on the location and health conditions of these prisoners;
• Demand that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) be allowed access to detention sites housing journalists or media workers, both in Russia and in the territories under its illegal control.

RSF reminded that among the 38 journalists currently detained by Russia, 19 are Ukrainians who refused to collaborate with Russian authorities. Often arrested on trumped-up charges of "terrorism" or "espionage", they face sentences of up to 20 years in prison, with nine already convicted by Russian courts.

"Russia deliberately isolates these journalists, keeping them in inhumane and degrading conditions, sometimes thousands of kilometres from Ukraine. The Kremlin continue to withhold information about the location and conditions of seven Ukrainian journalists arrested after 24 February 2022: Dmytro Khyliuk, Yana Suvorova, Heorhiy Levchenko, Vladyslav Hershon, Anastasia Hlukhovska, Yevheniy Ilchenko, and Zhanna Kyselova.

"The detention of Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna by Russian authorities ended with her death in custody on 19 September 2024, according to an official letter from the Russian Defence Ministry received by her family," remarks the organization.

According to the Institute of Mass Information, at least 30 Ukrainian civillian media professionals and two journalists who turned combatants are in Russian custody today. At least at least 112 Ukrainian and foreign journalists have been detained or taken hostage by Russian or pro-Russian forces since the beginning of the Russo–Ukrainian war in 2014.