Crimean journalist Iryna Danylovych, unlawfully convicted by Russia in 2022, complains of constant abuse at Penal Colony No. 7 in Zelenokumsk (Russia). She says that music starts playing early in the morning through the television and in the prison’s courtyard, and duty officers have discos at weekends, which hurts her ears. The journalist’s repeated complaints have yielded no result, reports Suspilne Crimea, citing her sister, Olha Novytska, who spoke at the press conference “The Price of Truth: Russia’s Persecution of Journalists in Occupied Crimea”.
Novytska says that her sister wrote in a letter that she has been enduring this manner of “sound pressure” since November 2022, and claimed that two of her fellow inmates had a radio, which is banned in the prison, and used it to provoke and torment her.
“Imagine being shoved inside a bell that never stops ringing, or a train that brakes abruptly. Translating the language of sound into the language of pain, every ringing sound can be compared to an exposed nerve in a tooth being constantly pricked with a needle. Music is a set of constant ringing sounds. The morning starts with music at six o’clock,” Danylovych wrote in a letter read out by her sister.
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The journalist remarked that the schedule approved by the prison administrator dictates that music be played for only one hour. However, she says, it plays constantly from the television and in the courtyard. Danylovych also claimed that duty officers had disregarded complaints during the weekend discos.
“I feel like a cornered kitten with nowhere to hide from the constant electric shock. My existence there is constant torture through music,” Iryna wrote.
Danylovych says that written complaints have yielded no result: she received formal non-responses saying that no violations have been discovered. Phone calls and requests, the journalist remarks, are likewise ignored.
Olha Novytska said that she feared for her sister’s life and wanted to raise awareness of her treatment by the prison’s management. At the end of her speech, she read out her sister’s words about the reasons for her persecution. Danylovych is convinced that she was punished for the truth and for her views.
“So what did the FSB officers who abducted me find in me? The truth and my own opinion. I’m certain that all this lawlessness will sooner or later end. I and hundreds of other equally innocent people will swap places with the real criminals. And we will judge them in a real, fair court,” the journalist wrote.
The Iryna Danylovych case
Iryna Danylovych was detained on 29 April 2022, in the occupied Crimea. She was detained on her way from work on the road from Koktebel to Feodosia. Her house in Vladislavivka village was searched, her phone and laptop were seized.
She was sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of storing an explosive device in December 2022. The sentence was later cut back a month, and the journalist moved to a prison in Russia.
Her health has deteriorated considerably while in jail: she suffered a stroke, lost hearing in one ear, and has repeatedly complained that proper medical assistance was being withheld from her. In 2024, she complained of heart pain and neurological problems.
It was reported in 2025 that Iryna Danylovych was in women’s prison No. 7 in Zelenokumsk (Stavropol Kray, Russia), in harsh conditions. She has addressed international institutions with a request to pay more attention to human rights abuse in Russian prisons.
In January 2026, Iryna Danylovych called on the international community to put more effort into raising awareness of the plight of Russia’s political prisoners in 2026.
On 28 April 2026, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) began trial in two lawsuits filed by Ukrainian journalist, Russia’s political prisoner Iryna Danylovych against Russia. The cases concerned unlawful detention and the journalist’s inclusion in Russia’s “foreign agents” register.
Reporters Without Borders and the US-based Human Rights Foundation handed Iryna Danylovych’s case to six UN special rapporteurs on June 19, asking them to take urgent action to free her.
Iryna Danylovych was a nurse and worked with Inzhyr Media and Crimean Process. She had a blog on social media and wrote columns on healthcare workers’ rights and healthcare issues in occupied Crimea.