Since the start of the full-scale invasion, 82 media workers have been killed and 14 have gone missing.
Russians understand that the media are people who show the truth on the front line, in the temporarily occupied territories and on the territory of Ukraine.
Russia has already committed more than 600 crimes against Ukrainian journalists and media since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. 82 media workers were killed, 34 injured, 14 journalists disappeared, and 25 are illegally detained by Russia.
During the event “Journalists matter: Call for the release of Ukrainian journalists held captive by the Russian Federation” in PACE, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada, Dmytro Lubinets, stated this.
According to him, in 2022, Russia began a full-scale invasion. Many Ukrainians lost their homes due to the war, many people lost their lives or were injured by Russia, more than 14 thousand civilians disappeared in the temporarily occupied territories.
“You see the photo of journalist Max Levin, he was killed by Russian troops in the Kyiv region while performing his professional duties. We know that Russia has committed more than 600 crimes against Ukrainian journalists and media in Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion. 82 media workers were killed, 34 injured, 14 journalists disappeared, 25 are illegally detained by Russia. These numbers are not final. the number of victims may be much higher,” says the human rights representative of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
Lubinets said that in the temporarily occupied territories, the Russians detained journalists because they called things by their names. Russians torture media people. Journalist Iryna Danylovych, who was arrested by the Russians in the occupied Crimea in 2022, journalist and writer Serhiy Tsygipa was illegally detained by the Russians in 2022 in the Kherson region.
“The Russians are not just kidnapping our citizens. There are cases when Russian soldiers kidnapped a Radio France fixer in 2022. For 5 days he was tortured with electric current, he was not allowed to eat and was humiliated. This is not the only case. Russian totalitarian policy prohibits freedom of speech. That’s why Russia illegally detains journalists and does it purposefully, when Russians see the inscription of the press, it is an additional target for the occupiers,” says Lubinets.
He also added that there are many examples when journalists with the inscription “Press” were killed by a Russian sniper. Russians understand that the media are people who show the truth on the front line, in the temporarily occupied territories and on the territory of Ukraine.
They record, record Russian crimes, and then it can be evidence to prosecute those crimes.
The rights of military correspondents and civilian journalists are not respected by Russia, especially those who are illegally in Russian territory, as well as in occupied Ukrainian territories. According to Lubinets, they are under serious threat, this is a threat to their lives, the conditions of their detention are wrong and they violate international humanitarian law.
“We can talk about the rule of international law, but do we have a real mechanism for how we can respond if it concerns a country that does not respect international humanitarian law? When we see that Russians think that many international resolutions and official documents are just a piece of paper for Russians,” Lubinets said.
He stated that if there is no real mechanism, how to prevent this, how to protect the rights of journalists, and also real actions, reactions to all these actions of Russia, the next targets may be journalists from European countries, from international organizations.
“Ukraine calls on the international community to increase diplomatic and political pressure on Russia and to release all Ukrainian journalists they are illegally holding,” the ombudsman said.
He also called for work on the peace formula, namely point 4, which condemns the Russian Federation’s attack on independent journalists in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories, including murder, kidnapping, torture and persecution of journalists. And also bring to justice all those responsible for crimes against humanity, especially those related to crimes against journalists. Also strengthen sanctions against Russia.
The event “Journalists matter: Call for the release of Ukrainian journalists held captive by the Russian Federation” took place during the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg, France. The event was attended, in particular, by the newly elected Secretary General of the Council of Europe Alain Berse, the permanent representative of Ukraine to the Council of Europe Borys Tarasyuk, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada Dmytro Lubinets, People’s Deputy Yevgenia Kravchuk, the head of the Supervisory Board of the Society, the deputy editor-in-chief of “Media Detector” Svitlana Ostapa , head of the freedom of speech monitoring department of the Institute of Mass Information, Kateryna Dyachuk.
According to the Institute of Mass Information, since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2014, more than 100 Ukrainian journalists have been held hostage by Russia. At least 30 media persons are currently in captivity.