29 Nov 2019 | Russia, Russia Incident Reports
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Index on Censorship’s Monitoring and Advocating for Media Freedom project tracks press freedom violations in five countries: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. Learn more.
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State-run Channel One cut out blogger’s joke about police
Ivan Urgant’s evening talk show edited out a joke about the police by blogger Danila Poperechny.
29 October – YouTube blogger Danila Poperechny said that his joke about the police was edited out of an episode of the late-night show Vecherny Urgant (Evening Urgant) at the state-owned Channel One.
After public outcry, the presenter Ivan Urgant showed the deleted joke in the next episode of the program. Poperechny’s joke alluded to the police raids carried out at the concerts of independent artists considered disloyal to the ruling government, and the fact that such artists would rarely appear on state-owned television stations.
Links:
https://twitter.com/Spoontamer/status/1188921512528613376
https://meduza.io/news/2019/10/30/v-vechernem-urgante-pokazali-vyrezannuyu-shutku-danily-poperechnogo-o-politsii-tsentra-e-v-ney-net
https://meduza.io/news/2019/10/30/v-vechernem-urgante-pokazali-vyrezannuyu-shutku-danily-poperechnogo-o-politsii-tsentra-e-v-ney-net
Categories: Censorship
Source(s) of violation: Government/State Agency/Public official(s)/Political party
Bookstore chain refused to sell an issue of Diletant history magazine dedicated to Molotov-Ribbentrop pact
The Diletant history magazine that a bookstore chain refused to sell because it covered the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. Credit: Alexey Venediktov via Twitter.
28 October – Bookstore chain Molodaya Gvardia refused to sell an issue of the Diletant history magazine dedicated to the Treaty of Non-aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. Alexey Venediktov, editor-in-chief of Ekho Moskvy radio station, which supports the publication of the magazine, wrote about Molodaya Gvardia’s stance on Twitter.
The bookstore’s press office told Znak.com that they were concerned about potential problems with the authorities related to the article 20.3 of the Administrative code, which bans the reproduction of Nazi symbols. The cover of the magazine is a reproduction of a 1939 American caricature depicting Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin as a bride and groom.
Vitaly Dymarskiy, editor-in-chief of Diletant magazine, told Telegram channel Rasstriga that he interpreted the bookstore’s decision to be an act of self-censorship.
Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Russian Communist party, claimed that he would sue the magazine and would file a complaint to Roskomnadzor. He reportedly told the Telegram channel Podyem that the prosecutor should investigate and put those responsible in jail.
On 28 October, the State Historical Museum cancelled the monthly lecture organized by Diletant magazine, citing disagreement with the views expressed in the last edition. The museum’s press service reportedly told Interfax news agency that it was a “principled position” on the part of the museum’s management, after they became aware of the magazine’s content.
Links:
https://twitter.com/aavst/status/1187302972876832768/photo/1
https://www.bbc.com/russian/news-50213831
Categories: Censorship
Source(s) of violation: Government/State Agency/Public official(s)/Political party
CEO of Karelia firm sued local journalist over article about his bonus
25 October – Pavel Degtyarev, CEO of Karellesprom, filed a million rubles ($15,630) defamation lawsuit against Svetlana Lysenko, a journalist with the local website Vesti Karelii, Stolicaonego.ru reported. The Karelia republic is a majority shareholder of Karellesprom.
Degtyarev claimed that Lysenko’s July article entitled “Spoon of tar in a barrel of forest honey: why did the director of Karellesprom receive a 26 million ruble ($406,383) bonus?” damaged his professional reputation. Degtyarev didn’t deny receiving the bonus.
In the article, Lysenko questioned the ethics of the bonus, arguing that Republic of Karelia is not wealthy enough to grant such premiums to management.
Links:
https://stolicaonego.ru/analytics/gendirektor-karellesproma-zahotel-poluchit-million-s-zasluzhennogo-zhurnalista-karelii/
https://vestikarelii.ru/kapit/lozhka_degtja_v_bochke_lesnogo_meda/
https://www.parkgagarina.info/index.php/obshchestvo/regiony-rossii/30437-kareliya-poluchil-26-millionov-premii-mozhno-i-v-sud-podat-na-zhurnalista.html
Categories: Subpoena / Court Order/ Lawsuits
Source(s) of violation: Known private individual(s)
Yekaterinburg journalist accused of insulting authorities
21 October – Yekaterinburg-based journalist and political analyst Fedor Krasheninnikov was accused of insulting the authorities, Meduza reported.
On 21 October, policemen went to Krasheninnikov’s home to officially summon him to the police department. When the journalist arrived at the local police department with his lawyer, they were told that somebody named Salavat Khaziev had filed a complaint against Krasheninnikov for insulting the authorities on his Telegram channel. In it, Krasheninnikov allegedly criticized the prolongation of the arrest of Leonid Volkov, former head of the campaign for opposition politician Alexey Navalny, and called the judges who sentenced him prostitutes.
The journalist denied any wrongdoing. He said that he didn’t know the identity of the person who filed the complaint against him. Krasheninnikov reportedly told Meduza that he attributed the origin of the case to local authorities’ “unhealthy concerns” about him. According to Meduza, he said that the authorities constantly call him names and scold him in pro-government anonymous blogs. In his commentary to Kommersant, he said that his comments about Volkov were private and emotive.
According to reports, a court will determine the future of the complaint.
Links:
https://meduza.io/feature/2019/10/28/na-politologa-i-zhurnalista-fedora-krasheninnikova-zaveli-delo-ob-oskorblenii-vlasti-iz-za-posta-v-telegrame-my-s-nim-pogovorili?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=share_fb&utm_campaign=share&fbclid=IwAR27tVoo5fLwnB0664GVD9MX_H8TiUsIDXLw36qTjr-Z5g7RC8JCDezxIUg
https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/4141118
Categories: Subpoena / Court Order/ Lawsuits, Criminal Charges/Fines/Sentences
Source(s) of violation: Police/State security, Known private individual(s)
Court refused to force Roskomnadzor to register opposition politician’s media outlet
24 October – Ostankinsky District Court refused to force Roskomnadzor (the Russian state media regulator) to register a media outlet founded by opposition politician Dimitry Gudkov.
Its editor-in-chief Alexey Obukhov filed a complaint to the court after the registration of his media outlet was refused numerous times. Obukhov said that among Roskomnadzor’s reasons were that he didn’t bring proof that he didn’t have a second citizenship and that he didn’t indicate the zip code in one of the documents. During the hearing, a Roskomnadzor representative said that Obukhov didn’t prove that he hadn’t been previously incarcerated.
Obukhov said that he had brought all the documents previously requested by Roskomnadzor to the court. The judge suggested that he re-apply for registration. Obukhov has been trying to register Gazeta Gudkova newspaper as an official media outlet since March 2019.
Links:
https://t.me/azlet1/223
https://tvrain.ru/news/sud_otkazalsja_objazat_roskomnadzor_zaregistrirovat_gazetu_dmitrija_gudkova-496103/?fbclid=IwAR2_cnt8EWJpSMmvs0DCLIhoxreGwm2ORwhAUWALIUyjkZ5rXnTe5A4X7FY
https://tvrain.ru/news/na_roskomnadzor_podali_v_sud_iz_za_otkaza_v_registratsii_gazety_gudkova-494840/?fbclid=IwAR3_KR30UhaPBrTk-0T_2MJb-jtfuRLlCiRVnkfPEtDoA5sqQD8GNGSGGks
Categories: Legal Measures
Source(s) of violation: Government/State Agency/Public official(s)/Political party, Court/Judicial
Grani.ru reporter assaulted while working on a story about a housing scheme
24 October – Andrey Novichkov, reporter with independent media outlet Grani.ru, was assaulted by two unknown men while working on a story about a state-funded housing scheme, Mediazona reported.
Novichkov was accompanying the deputy of the Moscow city parliament Elena Shuvalova, who came to inspect one of the houses, which were built for those eligible for free housing (families with more than 3 children, disabled people, military personnel, orphans, etc.). According to the investigation of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, however, the apartments in the house were given to dozens of Moscow officials and supporters of the city’s mayor, Sergey Sobyanin.
When the deputy and the journalist entered the house and took photos, four men came out of an apartment, which reportedly belongs to the deputy head of Moscow city parliament Olga Timofeeva, and assaulted the journalist. They tried to push him inside the apartment, threatening to break his tablet and lock him inside. Mediazona published a video of the assault. When Shuvalova went to call the police, the assailants released the journalist.
Links:
https://zona.media/news/2019/10/24/dom?fbclid=IwAR0YcVFtTaUMGLuD2w5Je4fb5j4k2kfS1Fvuj6HjxofMP7-JkLwzSxk4W1Y
https://tvrain.ru/news/na_deputata_mosgordumy_i_zhurnalista-496084/
https://www.facebook.com/elenashuvalova.ru/posts/1163759710481949
https://navalny.com/p/6147/
Category: Physical Assault/Injury, Intimidation
Source(s) of violation: Unknown
Editor-in-chief of NewsVo.ru fined twice for alleged ‘obscene’ language in the blog section of the site
23 October – Evgeniya Sibirtseva, editor-in-chief of Vologda local media outlet NewsVo.ru was fined 5,000 rubles ($78) for alleged ‘obscene’ language in a reader’s blog of the news website, 7×7 reported. The journalist reportedly said that she was never notified about the hearing, and found out about the court’s decision post-factum via a text message from her bank, which informed her that a fine had been withdrawn. Sibirtseva said that she was charged the same fine twice – from two different bank accounts. She was told that the second charge would be returned to her account.
She told 7×7 that in 2019 NewsVo.ru was fined for obscene language in the blogs section of the website three times. “It’s just an excuse to fine the media and fill the officials’ pockets,” Sibirtseva said in a statement at NewsVo.ru.
Links:
https://7×7-journal.ru/articles/2019/10/24/vologodskie-pristavy-dvazhdy-spisali-s-glavreda-regionalnogo-izdaniya-shtraf-za-mat-v-bloge-karelskoj-obshestvennicy?fbclid=IwAR06i8tskSsWy4SpmKyijSNze9OXOiRuSj7l2u3YxI_ogSTHLM9534iUngY
https://newsvo.ru/blogovo/123118
https://lenizdat.ru/articles/1156425/
Category: Criminal Charges/Fines/Sentences
Source(s) of violation: Government/State Agency/Public official(s)/Political party
Rossiya channel withdraws episode of a show covering the collapse of a dam at Krasnoyarsk gold mine
State-owned Rossiya channel withdrew an episode of Pryamoy Efir, which covered the story of a dam that collapsed in a gold mine in the Krasnoyarsk region.
23 October – State-owned Rossiya channel withdrew an episode of the talk show Pryamoy Efir, after it had been shown live and in full to viewers in Siberia and the far eastern regions of Russia, Krasnoyarsk outlet NGS24.RU reported. The episode covered the story of a dam that collapsed in a gold mine in the Krasnoyarsk region (Siberia) in October and caused the deaths of at least 15 people.
Live shows on Russian television are broadcast in the furthermost eastern time zone first, and then replayed in the same time slot in more time zones that are further west. The episode of Pryamoy Efir, which is hosted by the prominent TV presenter Andrey Malakhov, was withdrawn and not shown in the more westerly time zones. It was replaced with another episode of Pryamoy Efir.
A reporter from NGS24.RU took part in the show. The outlet reported that the episode was removed because of a call Rossiya received from the authorities. NGS24.RU published a fragment of the deleted show, in which Malakhov was reading out the results of an express test of the water probe from Seiba river, where the dam collapsed, indicating highly abnormal presence of chemicals, including mercury. Ecologists who took part in the show reportedly suggested that this may have been caused by the use of outdated technologies in the gold mine and that the chemical leaks could seriously threaten the ecology of the Krasnoyarsk region.
The Rossiya press office said that the Pryamoy Efir episode was only ever intended for broadcast in the far eastern regions.
Links:
https://ngs24.ru/news/more/66280972/?fbclid=IwAR0iDWrlmo9deMMIb8CTuFEdFaSghfhr-AgbARPpT4h6Gktr12itQetT6d8
https://www.bbc.com/russian/news-50157041
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-50108413
Category: Censorship
Source(s) of violation:
Journalist detained in Krasnodar region
22 October – Gleb Pyanykh, former NTV journalist and TV presenter who is currently running his own YouTube channel with reports on politics and the economy, was detained in the Krasnodar region, RBC reported.
Pyanykh went to Dinskaya village to work on a story about a villa that was illegally built on agricultural lands, which allegedly belongs to the governor of the Krasnodar region, Veniamin Kondratyev. The journalist was stopped near the villa by a uniformed security guard, who questioned Pyanykh about his work and demanded that he go to the security office. At the same time, another man in plain clothes arrived in a car and blocked the way out. When Pyanykh started to film what was going on with his mobile phone, the men let him drive away.
However, after 500 meters the journalist’s car was stopped by police. They said that they received a call from the villa’s security guards and demanded that the journalist write an explanatory note about his activities. The policemen detained Pyanykh for about an hour and then released him without charge.
Links:
https://www.rbc.ru/politics/22/10/2019/5daf184e9a7947d00f05acac?fbclid=IwAR3yngMmwi3v7_yp8EZdBbKzPEuMYQnsWismzNUyDGb85_FdokXrogAJjwY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_5tjz9KHCI
Category: Arrest/Detention/Interrogation, Blocked Access
Source(s) of violation: Police/State security, Private security
Novaya Gazeta reporters assaulted at hunting centre in Moscow region
19 October – Svetlana Vidanova and Artyom Raspopov, correspondents with independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, were assaulted while working on a story about the illegal training of hunting dogs, Novaya Gazeta reported. Wild animals in Solnechnogorsk district of Moscow region were reportedly being hunted and killed during the trainings.
The journalists were accompanying animal rights activists when they were inspecting the area around the illegal training centre and found two fox skulls and a dead dog. When they entered the centre’s premises, the security guards approached Vidanova, twisted her arms, punched the camera and took her press card. The guards also took away Raspopov’s mobile phone and threw it over the fence, twisted his arms and pushed him out of the centre’s gate.
Police were called to the scene, but did not interfere while the assault was ongoing. The journalists received medical attention and filed a police report.
Links:
https://www.novayagazeta.ru/news/2019/10/19/156252-na-territorii-pritravochnoy-stantsii-v-moskovskoy-oblasti-napali-na-na-zoozaschitnikov-i-zhurnalistov-novoy?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=novaya&utm_campaign=-na-territorii-pritravochnoy-stantsii-kr
https://www.facebook.com/novgaz/photos/a.136917239684305/3217048941671104/?type=3&theater
Category: Physical Assault/Injury
Source(s) of violation: Private security
Roskomnadzor banned a report about a nationalist rally published 6 years ago
17 October – Russian state media regulator Roskomnadzor notified Tayga.info about the inclusion of their article about a 2013 nationalist rally in Novosibirsk in the list of banned materials, Tayga.info reported.
The article entitled “Novosibirsk divided into two Russian rallies” was published on 4 November 2013. Explaining the ban, Roskomandzor cited a Yekaterinburg court’s decision from 5 April 2018, which ruled that the article contained an extremist slogan. However, the slogan in question was deemed to be extremist by the court only in 2017, four years after the publication. The 2018 trial was initiated by the local prosecutor’s office. Tayga.info was never notified about the hearing before receiving Roskomnadzor message on 17 October 2019.
Tayga.info’s editors removed the rally slogan from the article, along with two photographs where it’s visible. They are consulting lawyers about the matter. In a statement, the website’s editorial team said that they didn’t consider the post-factum removal of information, which at the time of publication was not banned, to be legal.
Links:
https://tayga.info/149498?fbclid=IwAR16jH060QEZvJmQD45e9aSR1wwYCO_tGszBD1k_5FehW-o1SPUG3UMcwmU
https://tayga.info/114408
https://zheleznodorozhny–svd.sudrf.ru/modules.php?name=sud_delo&name_op=case&_id=219599949&_deloId=1540005&_caseType=&_new=0&srv_num=2
Category: Legal Measures
Source(s) of violation: Government/State Agency/Public official(s)/Political party
13 Yekaterinburg journalists barred from covering trial on murder of local woman
17 October – Lenisnky district court of Yekaterinburg approved an appeal filed by prosecutors and supported by defense to close the trial on the murder of a local woman, Ksenia Katorgina, to the press and the public, MK-Yekaterinburg reported.
The journalists were removed from the courtroom. They were also prevented from filming the three suspects in the court’s halls, and were told not to film them through the windows when they were brought to the court.
Links:
https://eburg.mk.ru/incident/2019/10/17/nachalsya-sud-po-vybory-mery-presecheniya-dlya-podozrevaemykh-v-ubiystve-katorginoy-zhurnalistov-ne-pustili.html
https://www.e1.ru/news/spool/news_id-66273460.html
https://74.ru/text/criminal/66273460/
Category: Blocked Access
Source(s) of violation: Court/Judicial
Journalist of Samarskaya Gazeta forced to quit after publicly revealing city mayor’s efforts to censor the newspaper
17 October – Maxim Melnikov, journalist with Samara newspaper Samarskaya Gazeta, was forced to quit his job after publicly criticizing the editorial standards of the newspaper, which he said bowed to pressure imposed by officials from Samara’s mayor’s office.
On 10 October, a video from a local journalism conference was published with a 10-minute speech from Melnikov, in which he said that he published an ironic post on Samarskaya Gazeta’s official Vkontakte account about a street that was flooded due to a burst pipe.
Within 30 minutes of Melnikov having posted the comment, Samarskaya Gazeta’s editor-in-chief reportedly received a call from the city mayor’s office demanding that the post be deleted. According to Melnikov, that the editor and the unnamed official negotiated a deal that the outlet would keep the post, but publish only positive news about the incident in the following two or three days.
After the video of his conference speech was published, he was asked by the newspaper’s management to resign. The journalist reportedly expressed frustration that the authorities censor people who speak about problems, rather than trying to solve them.
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2710398908992030&id=100000658419213&sfnsn=mo
https://zona.media/news/2019/10/17/mlnkv?fbclid=IwAR0dGzSCvePc3ziDVz42BBo6Pt5p3RL4oxyuZDpkkV_vsmZm8fZ7g8L5DLA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5RgWCstaIg&t=0s&fbclid=IwAR1QGckR5iPrq78gUYxGPF_fkDsws-e-tHGe1-V0ANXgcnM_vR_mOEaxKoE
Category: Censorship
Source(s) of violation: Employer/Publisher/Colleague(s)
Police searched the homes of journalists in relation to Anti-Corruption Foundation case
15 October – Police searched the homes of four journalists in different Russian regions, as part of a money-laundering probe into opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, reported multiple outlets.
In the early hours of 15 October, police raided the home of Alexey Seregin, a Mari El-based journalist working for Idel.Realii. He told Idel.Realii that the police conducted a 3-hour search of his home and seized his personal belongings, including a computer, a mobile phone and a recorder. Seregin said that he had covered Navalny’s activities in the Mari El region, but had never worked with the politician’s Anti-Corruption Foundation.
A second Idel.Realii journalist, Dmitry Lubimov, wrote in a Facebook post that police carried out a simultaneous raid of his Yoshkar-Ola apartment, where he has not lived since February. Lubimov believed it was an attempt to put pressure on him and prevent him from his carrying out his work, which included covering Navalny’s activities.
A simultaneous raid was also carried out at the Smolensk home of Alexey Volkov, editor-in-chief of local website Keytown.me. Keytown.me had published news articles about the activities of the local office of Navalny’s political movement. Police told Volkov that the search would be conducted in connection with the money laundering case against the Anti-Corruption Foundation. When Volkov asked how he was connected to the money laundering investigation against the Anti-Corruption Foundation, police said: “This is what we will find out”. The search lasted two hours, during which the police threatened Volkov’s wife that they’d take away their two children, including their 4-month-old baby, if she didn’t sign a non-disclosure agreement. The police seized the journalist’s personal belongings, among them two computers, a hard drive, a mobile phone and all bank cards, even the one that was used for receiving children’s welfare. After the raid, the journalist was reportedly questioned for an hour by the investigator of the Investigative Committee of Smolensk region. Volkov subsequently told 7×7 that he had nothing to do either with the Anti-Corruption Foundation or with the local office of Navalny’s movement, and only covered them in the news.
On the same day in Vladimir, the police searched the editorial office of local press club Dovod. Its journalists were questioned over the case against the Anti-Corruption Foundation. The police seized laptops and computers, and the smartphone of the editor-in-chief, Kirill Ishutin.
On 16 October, police searched the home of Arkhangelsk-based journalist Yaroslav Varenik, seizing the hard disk of his computer, his notebook and his phone, 29.Ru reported. Varenik was taken to the police department for questioning and then released the same day.
In the days that followed, police searched the Moscow headquarters of the Anti-Corruption Foundation and the homes of the employees of its 30 regional offices.
Links:
https://www.idelreal.org/a/30223538.html?fbclid=IwAR1fS0Os9OcKVnacVV2WqIbKHD98PkGNS9_TYo-Xx8GGxlGXl-223tr4vgA
https://www.facebook.com/lemuyel/posts/2494914360562191?__tn__=H-R
https://29.ru/text/politics/66272740/
https://meduza.io/news/2019/10/16/v-arhangelske-u-zhurnalista-izdaniya-29-ru-proveli-obysk-po-delu-fbk-eto-uzhe-chetvertyy-takoy-sluchay-za-dva-dnya?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=share_fb&utm_campaign=share&fbclid=IwAR3XddAIXFMofeyy74HENB6xsPClnKeZ-wK1vEp5r35oGfXHXsRUeI9rcp8
https://7×7-journal.ru/articles/2019/10/15/v-smolenske-sledovateli-prishli-s-obyskom-k-redaktoru-novostnogo-sajta-keytown-me-po-delu-fbk?fbclid=IwAR1cVKvdlHwUE379eAhIqwFHPBjQT2ZSNz0wQGahauE0JurA6PHAQR2SCOg
https://www.dovod.online/v-redakcii-dovod-prohodit-obysk/
Category: Arrest/Detention/Interrogation
Source(s) of violation: Police/State security
Proekt journalists received threats after publishing story on Russian mercenaries in Libya
15 October – Roman Badanin, the founder and editor-in-chief of investigative media outlet Proekt, told Reuters about the surveillance, hacking attacks, and threats that Proekt journalists have been subjected to following the publication of a story about Russian mercenaries in the Libyan Civil War earlier this year.
According to Badanin, the journalists who worked on that investigation received explicit threats of physical violence via email. He said that attempts to hack the journalists’ accounts on Facebook, Telegram and Gmail were also made. Badanin referred to an incident in which Maria Karpenko, a Proekt reporter based in Saint Petersburg, was followed by an unidentified man who was filming her. Badanin said he believed that it was useless to report the threats to the police, and that he believed that publicity might be a better way to protect the journalists.
Since March Proekt has published reports on the activities of a Russian mercenary group known as CHVK Vagnera and linked to Saint Petersburg businessman Evgeny Prigozhin. The press service of his firm Konkord Management & Consulting refused to give a comment to Reuters.
Links:
https://www.proekt.media/investigation/prigozhin-libya/
ttps://ru.reuters.com/article/topNews/idRUKBN1WU252-ORUTP
https://tvrain.ru/news/zhurnalisty_proekta-495495/?fbclid=IwAR1tmNVK1QkUSVwLNDRcWhKJ5mt99OUT1MxGn_lPl_2aMCutwsFVheJvwfo
Category: Intimidation, DDoS/Hacking/Doxing
Source(s) of violation: Corporation/Company, Known private individual(s), Unknown
Yaroslavl journalist’s car burnt out
13 October – On the night of 12 October, the car of Marina Borbat was set on fire and burnt out, Regnum news agency reported. Borbat is the director of Yaroslavl regional broadcaster DIA-TV. Borbat believes the arson could be related to a previous conflict with a local crime boss.
According to Igor Yamshikov of the All-Russia People’s Front movement, posting on the Yaroslavl branch’s Facebook page, said they believe that the arson attack was linked to Borbat’s journalistic activities.
According to Yamshikov, Borbat had a run-in with a crime boss, after her filming equipment went missing while she was covering a story on 26 September 2017. Borbat reportedly filed a complaint to the police, and a similar complaint was filed by the editor of Severyanka local newspaper, but the police did not find any wrongdoing on the part of the crime boss.
In a separate case, the crime boss was reportedly found guilty of hooliganism and sent to prison. He is due to be released shortly. Borbat said that while she had no evidence that the damage of her car was linked to the crime boss, she knew that several people who had conflicts with him had their cars burnt out.
Links:
https://lenizdat.ru/articles/1156388/?fbclid=IwAR3NNblx_QVDyjP6NA5Us1nLJ9kFdUPym4Li3v9rQrcSK66pSH88Y18z8mI
https://regnum.ru/news/accidents/2748889
https://sobesednik.ru/proisshestviya/20191016-u-redaktora-telekanala-v-yaroslavskoj-oblasti-sgorela-mashina
Category: Intimidation/Attack to Property
Source(s) of violation: Unknown
MBH Media journalist detained in Moscow
7 October – Nikita Maslovsky, a reporter with MBH Media, was detained along with Bessrochny Protest [Eternal Protest] activists while covering their activities in Moscow, MBH Media reported. The activists were planning to stage an anti-Putin protest at Kutuzovsky Prospekt imitating president Putin’s funeral, but were intercepted by the police.
Although Maslovsky was just covering the demonstration, he was also detained by police. He had tried to show police his press identification, but they ignored it. They refused to state the reason for his detention. Maslovsky was taken to a police van, where police tried to confiscate his phone. After more than five hours, the journalist was released without charge.
Links:
https://mbk-news.appspot.com/news/v-moskve-polic/
https://tvrain.ru/news/v_moskve_zaderzhali_aktivistov_bessrochnogo_protesta_i_zhurnalista_mbh_media-495002/?fbclid=IwAR3yPwVy0kYM8_xz4Ed5AkuB3toi3bkjT4M_6GQf6EK4JYGEyzYgajG–lA
Category: Arrest/Detention/Interrogation
Source(s) of violation: Police/State security
Editor of Magadan media outlet Vesma assaulted in his house
3 October – Andrey Grishin, chief editor of independent online news agency Vesma, was beaten on the staircase of his apartment building in Magadan, Vesma reported.
Around 10:30 am, a young man knocked on Grishin’s door, saying that he had accidentally crashed into his car in the courtyard and asking the journalist to come down with him. When Grishin came out, there were two other men waiting. They attacked him and after reportedly punching him 15-20 times, one of them said to him: “Do you understand? Don’t write anything like that anymore”. The journalist said he didn’t sustain any serious injuries and that he didn’t know which particular story they were referring to.
Updates:
18 October – Magadan police reportedly detained two male suspects, aged 19 and 27. Both are pleading guilty. The police opened a criminal case against them under article 116 of Russia’s Criminal Code (physical violence).
21 October – Telegram channel Sovest Gubernatorov [Governors’ Conscience] reported, citing the police sources, that the testimonies of the detained suspects were classified, and the case against them was downgraded to an administrative violation due to the possible involvement of a local deputy Eduard Kozlov from the ruling party United Russia. According to the Telegram channel, the suspects mentioned in their testimony that Kozlov was the mastermind of the attack.
Links:
http://vesma.today/news/post/10616-v-magadane-napali-na-redaktora?fbclid=IwAR1nx8X-x-wQDOZt_q6fPCO5LEJbUNJCBFch7blp2P3f4WydnuppRVeLgfE
https://www.svoboda.org/a/30207298.html
https://49.xn--b1aew.xn--p1ai/news/item/18646886/
https://t.me/guber2
http://vesma.today/news/post/11006-v-telegram-kanalakh-poyavilas-versiya-
Category: Physical Assault/Injury, Intimidation
Source(s) of violation: Unknown, Known Private Individuals
Editors of Pskov outlets summoned for questioning over Prokopeva case
3 October – Maxim Kostikov, editor-in-chief of Ekho Moskvy-Pskov radio station, and Alexander Savenko, editor-in-chief of Pskovskaya Lenta Novostey, were summoned for questioning to the police department over Svetalana Prokopeva’s case, Novaya Gazeta reported.
In September Prokopeva, a radio journalist with Ekho Moskvy, was charged with justifying terrorism over her comments about Arkhangelsk FSB office bombing, which she made on the radio late last year.
Due to a non-disclosure agreements, the editors were not in a position to discuss the nature of the questioning. On 1 October both outlets, along with a dozen other media outlets, published an open letter written by Prokopieva.
Links:
https://www.novayagazeta.ru/news/2019/10/03/155836-glavredov-eha-moskvy-v-pskove-i-pskovskoy-lenty-novostey-vyzvali-na-dopros?fbclid=IwAR35jLnpf1nb-uTMRM6RIaHhhv6IJmAz9y0s4d7A2Ya_el92cwG9qfaECIQ
https://t.me/shlosberg/4021
Category: Arrest/Detention/Interrogation
Source(s) of violation: Police/State security
Armed policemen visited office of Chernovik newspaper in Dagestan
2 October – Armed officers of the Dagestan Investigative Committee came to the editorial office of the Makhachkala-based newspaper Chernovik, MBH Media reported. The officers demanded that two offices – those of the editor-in-chief and the paper’s founder – be opened, but because they were at a forum in the city of Perm at the time, the offices remained locked.
The deputy editor-in-chief Magomed Magomedov reportedly said that the Dagestan Investigative Committee’s actions were in the framework of the criminal case against Chernovik journalist, Abdulmumin Gadzhiev, who was detained in June on terrorism charges. On 23 July Gadzhiev was charged under article 205.1 of the Criminal Code (financing terrorism).
Links:
https://t.me/chernovik/12532
https://tvrain.ru/news/v_redaktsiju_dagestanskoj_gazety_chernovik_prishli_siloviki-494656/?fbclid=IwAR3PKP65tgFKQWmkPCRL20Qgc4CDVFWIIasScpkpAI37Mb0c5YIejC9FaH0
https://mbk-news.appspot.com/news/iloviki/
Category: Legal Measures
Source(s) of violation: Police/State security
Roskomnadzor blocked website of news agency Fergana
1 October – Roskomnadzor, the Russian state media regulator, blocked access to the website of news agency Fergana without any prior notification, Fergana reported.
Maria Dubnova, Fergana’s editor-in-chief, said that the block came as a complete surprise and that they would investigate the situation. She said that Fergana had already sent a request to Roskomnadzor asking to explain why the access to the website was limited without warning.
Fergana has been covering Central Asia since 1998, and is currently banned in Tajikistan.
Update:
8 October – Roskomnadzor unblocked the website of Fergana news agency after they deleted a news story about a Kyrgyz man’s suicide published in February this year. The agency learned that they were prosecuted for that particular story with the help of Roscomsvoboda project, as the regulator never replied to the agency’s inquiries. Roskomnadzor is known to block websites that publish stories on suicide in which the method is mentioned.
Links:
https://fergana.agency/news/111306/
https://meduza.io/news/2019/10/01/roskomnadzor-zablokiroval-sayt-agentstva-fergana?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=share_fb&utm_campaign=share&fbclid=IwAR0DOdQKH3dbkpqbma2i9pLkFWd-ifyg_RbVA9oNF3e58G-3jr53YJWYIT4
https://www.novayagazeta.ru/news/2019/10/11/156056-roskomnadzor-snova-zablokiroval-sayt-informatsionnogo-agentstva-fergana
https://www.bbc.com/russian/news-49903556
Category: Legal Measures
Source(s) of violation: Police/State security[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1575023592087-f59638a3-3b6f-7″ taxonomies=”8996″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
15 Oct 2019 | Ukraine, Ukraine Incident Reports
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Index on Censorship’s Monitoring and Advocating for Media Freedom project tracks press freedom violations in five countries: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. Learn more.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_custom_heading text=”10 Incidents” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]
Cameraman assaulted with pepper spray
Channel 7 cameraman was pepper sprayed while reporting
30 September 2019 – Andriy Kulba, a cameraman for Channel 7, was reporting on a domestic incident, involving a young child, in Odessa when he was assaulted with pepper spray. Paramedics who were called provided Kulba with first aid and he was taken to the burn department of a local hospital. Both of his forearms, as well as his neck, face and eyes were injured in the assault.
Link(s): http://nsju.org/index.php/article/view/8237
Categories: Physical Assault/Injury
Source of violation: Known private individual(s)
Journalist threatened with a gun
26 September 2019 – Video blogger Andriy Pylypovych was shooting a story on illegal construction in the city of New Kakhovka (Kherson region), when he was threatened with a pistol by a builder on the site.
“I was shooting a story for my video blog [on YouTube], and as a freelance correspondent for the newspapers Dniprovsky Prospect and Chas. We perceived the threat of “firing” at us as a joke until the builder pulled a gun out of the car,” Pylypovych told the Institute for Mass Information representative.
No one was injured and the police have opened a criminal investigation.
Link(s): https://imi.org.ua/news/u-novij-kahovtsi-budivelnyk-pogrozhuvav-zhurnalistu-pistoletom-i29813
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArqrcoibdJQ
https://hr.npu.gov.ua/news/virok-sudu/zhitel-novoji-kaxovki-pidozryujetsya-v-pogrozhuvanni-misczevomu-zhurnalistu/?fbclid=IwAR2lq2XpANB1rGJDjkpAEZb4fVtPr0m-fnQHFvAyWErtL5G_5GPonb-60Qw
Categories: Physical Assault/Injury
Source of violation: Unknown
National Council on television to revoke licenses for TV channel
26 September 2019 – The Ukrainian National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting made a decision not to extend broadcasting licence of 112 Ukraine TV channel, which is available in five Ukrainian regions, including Donbass, TASS reported.
A spokesman for the regulator, Serhiy Kostinsky, said that 112 Ukraine TV channel’s request to extend their licence would be denied. All members of the committee have backed this decision.
On 30 September, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, expressed his concern today over the decision taken by the media regulator, the National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine, not to renew the digital terrestrial broadcasting licenses of five regional television companies.
“I hope that the National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine will find a solution to preserve pluralism in the media environment,” said Désir. “It is important to ensure diversity in the broadcasting, while fully respecting the legal requirements, and balancing any regulatory decisions with access to pluralistic media.”
Link(s):
https://tass.com/society/1080001
https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/national-council-ruling-on-112-ukraines-ending-license-for-appealed-by-5-tv-companies-with-its-logo.html
https://112.international/society/revoking-digital-broadcasting-license-from-the-112-ukraine-tv-channel-is-political-lynching-opposition-platform-for-life-party-43954.html
https://www.osce.org/representative-on-freedom-of-media/434201
https://imi.org.ua/en/news/five-companies-broadcasting-under-logo-112-ukraina-appealed-against-national-council-s-decision-i29836
Categories: Legal Measures
Source of violation: Government/State Agency/Public official(s)/Political party
Journalists pushed and shoved by president’s press secretary
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s spokesperson, Yulia Mendel, shoves reporter Serhiy Andrushko to prevent him from asking questions
26 September 2019 – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and UA:Pershyi correspondent, Serhiy Andrushko, was repeatedly pushed back by presidential press secretary Yulia Mendel, as he tried to approach the Head of the President’s Office and President Zelenskiy to ask them questions.
A video of the incident shows Mendel repeatedly shoving Serhiy Andrushko as he tries to approach the two men. The Head of the President’s Office, Andriy Bohdan, approaching the journalist and told him: “I do not communicate with representatives of the media, which deceive society and don’t adhere to journalistic standards. This is my final point.”
RFE/RL’s Kyiv correspondent Christopher Miller said he had encountered Mendel’s confrontational approach at a conference in Kyiv on 13 September. According to Miller, Mendel shoved him aside while he was talking to Zelenskiy at the conference.
On September 28 the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine demanded apology from Presidential Office for Mendel’s behaviour. “The press secretary of the president has no right to physically interfere in the work of journalists,” the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine head Serhiy Tomilenko said on Facebook.
Link(s): https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=external&v=389325218429171
https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2019/09/27/7227517/
https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2019/09/27/7227495/
https://www.facebook.com/mixailotkach/posts/2426832120719629
https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/schemes/30184985.html
https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-journalist-union-demands-apology-from-presidential-office/30189675.html
Categories: Physical Assault/Injury, Blocked Access
Source of violation: Government/State Agency/Public official(s)/Political party
Journalist received threats in SMS messages
23 September 2019 – KyivPost journalist, Anna Myronyuk, received a text message from pro-Russian fighters from the occupied areas of the Luhansk region saying that she could be be given up to 10 years to life imprisonment for alleged “genocide and prohibited means / methods of war”.
She was the third KyivPost journalist to have received such messages after sending their documents to the Joint Forces Operations press centre about three weeks ago. She wrote on Facebook: “I have reason to believe that there was another leak of the data of journalists who have applied for accreditation to work in the combat zone or the Joint Forces Operations zone. Colleagues from other media who did not apply for accreditation during this period did not receive such threats. I will be happy to be incorrect, but so far everything looks different – that it is not becoming safer to work as a journalist in Ukraine”.
Olga Rudenko, KyivPost deputy editor-in-chief, said that SMS messages were received by journalists who had not yet travelled to the Joint Forces Operation zone. British journalist Reece Lynch is also reported to have been threatened.
Link(s):
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2514082801990506&set=a.794967737235363&type=3&theater
https://detector.media/community/article/170996/2019-09-24-zhurnalisti-kyiv-post-poskarzhilisya-na-pogrozi-z-boku-boiovikiv-orlo-pripustivshi-vitik-danikh/
Categories: Intimidation, Offline Defamation/Discredit/Harassment/Verbal Abuse
Source of violation: Unknown
Online news outlet journalist assaulted by local deputy
23 September 2019 – KNK-media journalist Alexander Vlasov was assaulted by Kherson region council deputy, Yevhen Ryshchuk, in the village of Pravi Sahy village.
The assault on the journalist occurred at night, during the village celebrations in the local House of Culture. According to Institute for Mass Information, Ryshchuk hit the journalist on the head and in the shoulder and then took his phone, breaking it.
The police opened a criminal investigation under the article “intentional slight bodily injury.”
Link(s): https://hr.npu.gov.ua/news/novini/policziya-z-yasovuje-obstavini-konfliktu-v-oleshkivskomu-rajoni/
https://knk.media/zhurnalisty/25-aleksandr-vlasov.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tz9LlmoNIM
https://imi.org.ua/news/politsiya-vidkryla-spravu-za-171-statteyu-cherez-pereshkodzhannya-zhurnalistu-i29717
Categories: Physical Assault/Injury, Attack to Property
Source of violation: Government/State Agency/Public official(s)/Political party
TV journalist assaulted by car driver
6 September 2019 – Journalist Kateryna Kolgan of 2+2 TV’s DjeDAI (ДжеДАІ) program was assaulted by a motorist in Kyiv, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine reported.
Kolgan posted on Facebook that the program crew was filming a story about violators of traffic rules in the urban district of Borshchagovka. According to the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, one of the drivers who Kolgan approached for interview, punched her from his car. In doing so, he knocked her mobile phone from her hand and drove over it.
The journalist was not injured but the phone was damaged as a result of the incident. “I’m glad that only the mobile phone was broken – and not my leg. The car came very close to my foot,” Kolgan wrote.
The journalist contacted the police, saying that she has a video, which shows both the driver and the car number.
Link(s): https://www.facebook.com/katyha.kolgan/posts/1961707133931875
https://imi.org.ua/news/u-kyyevi-pid-chas-zjomok-vodij-napav-na-zhurnalistku-2-2-i29449
http://nsju.org/index.php/article/view/8198
https://detector.media/community/article/170537/2019-09-06-u-kievi-na-zhurnalistku-22-napali-pid-chas-ziomok-syuzhetu-politsiya-vidkrila-provadzhennya/
Categories: Physical Assault/Injury, Attack to Property
Source of violation: Unknown
National TV Council to file lawsuit to revoke NewsOne television’s license
5 September 2019 – The Ukrainian National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council has accused the News 24 Hours TV channel of inciting ethical, racial, and religious strife, noting that it is going to file a lawsuit to deprive the TV channel of its license, the KyivPost reported.
The council said that it recorded violations during News 24 Hours’ unscheduled inspection of the TV station in July, which came about as a result of NewsOne TV’s (which is owned by News 24 Hours) intentions to hold a TV link-up with the Russia-1 TV channel on 8 July.
Reading out the council’s decision, Herasymiuk accused the TV channel of “inciting ethnic, racial, or religious animosity or hostility in statements that were made live on the News 24 Hours TV channel between June 6, 2019, and July 8, 2019”.
In a statement on its website, NewsOne said that the National Council’s decision is based on multiple violations of the law that have taken place before and during the inspection of the TV channel. “The National Council blatantly and cynically displayed the negligence of legal procedures and put a rude pressure on its employees in order to ruin the independent TV channel,” NewsOne said in the statement.
Link(s): https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/ukrainian-national-tv-council-to-file-lawsuit-to-revoke-newsone-televisions-license.html
https://newsone.ua/news/society/newsone-obratilsja-k-mezhdunarodnomu-soobshchestvu-v-svjazi-s-resheniem-natssoveta.html
https://interfax.com.ua/news/telecom/611492.html
Categories: Subpoena / Court Order/ Lawsuits
Source of violation: Government/State Agency/Public official(s)/Political party
Reporters received death threats
5 September 2019 – Bellingcat journalist Oleksiy Kuzmenko received an anonymous e-mail containing a link to the video and death threats after he tweeted about a far-right festival held in Kyiv by the Azov movement. He received other insults and threats by various far-right groups.
Since Bellingcat published an article on the translation of the Christchurch shooter’s manifesto in mid-August 2019, Michael Colborne and Oleksiy Kuzmenko have been consistently harassed and threatened online.
In August, a threatening video appeared on a far-right Telegram channel that promotes the Christchurch shooter’s manifesto. The video featured the photographs of Michael Colborne, Oleksiy Kuzmenko and fellow journalists Dmitry Gordon and Valerie Kipnis, being shot one by one with a firearm. It was posted with the following message: “This video is kind of an instruction manual on how to deal with our enemies.” Michael Colborne’s photograph showed him as he was beaten up while covering an anti-LGBT rally in Kyiv last November.
Link(s):
https://go.coe.int/SRWnu
https://twitter.com/bellingcat/status/1169306250087161858
https://tsn.ua/ukrayina/rozsliduvachi-bellingcat-zayavili-pro-pogrozi-vbivstvom-z-boku-ukrayinskih-pravoradikaliv-1405953.html
Categories: Intimidation, Online Defamation/Discredit/Harassment/Verbal Abuse
Source of violation: Unknown
City council deputy grabs audio recorder from journalist
3 September 2019 — Halyna Nazarova, journalist for Energetik newspaper, was assaulted by city council deputy, Anatoliy Tolkach, during a city council meeting in the Mykolaiv region.
Nazarova told the Institute for Mass Information that she was sitting near Tolkach at a meeting and placed the audio recorder on the table. Tolkach grabbed the recorder and put it in his pocket, saying that she was not allowed to record him. He ignored her requests to give her back the recorder.
The journalist then began using her phone to record, but the deputy grabbed her phone and threw it. Describing the incident, she said, “He took the recorder, so I turned on the recorder on my mobile phone. I put it on the table. He picked up the phone and tossed it on the floor. He shouted to us that ‘your place is in the corner, get in the corner and write from there’.”
As a result, the meeting was suspended and the journalist called the police. The police launched an investigation under the article “Obstruction of the legal professional activity of journalists.”
Link(s): https://imi.org.ua/news/na-mykolayivshhyni-deputat-vidibrav-u-zhurnalistky-dyktofon-na-zasidanni-komisiyi-i29705
Categories: Physical Assault/Injury, Attack to Property
Source of violation: Government/State Agency/Public official(s)/Political party[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1571144646302-3b13becb-cfa4-6″ taxonomies=”8996″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
29 Apr 2019
[vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content_no_spaces” full_height=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1556538283972{background-image: url(https://www.indexoncensorship.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/index-report-2018-legislation-bannerv2.png?id=106464) !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: contain !important;}”][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”Targeting the messenger: Journalists ensnared by national security legislation” font_container=”tag:h1|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_custom_heading text=”As security – rather than protecting rights and freedoms – becomes the top priority of governments worldwide, laws have increasingly been used to obstruct the work of media professionals in the 35 countries that are in or affiliated with the European Union (EU35).” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]Index on Censorship’s Mapping Media Freedom project, which monitors violations against media professionals in 43 countries, has received 269 reports of cases where national laws in the EU35 have been obstacles to media freedom between 2014 and 2018.
This includes everything from the hundreds of journalists jailed in Turkey following the 2016 failed coup to the seizure of a BBC journalist’s laptop in the United Kingdom, as well as Spain’s Citizens Security Law.
Mapping Media Freedom’s data highlights that the misuse of national security legislation to silence government critics is growing. Of the 269 cases, 67 happened in 2018 and 77 in 2017. There were 81 reports in 2016, 34 in 2015 and only 10 in 2014.
The increase in incidents may be the result of rapidly changing political contexts in individual countries such as Turkey, but it also reflects a continental trend, as incidents have increased in countries including the UK, France, Spain and Germany.
Mapping Media Freedom’s numbers reflect only what has been reported to the platform. We have found that journalists under-report incidents they consider minor, commonplace or part of the job, or where they fear reprisals. In some cases, Mapping Media Freedom correspondents have identified incidents retrospectively as a result of comments on social media or reports appearing only after similar incidents have come to light.
EU governments in particular need to be mindful that loosely-drafted national security laws are often copied by far more restrictive regimes to support their repression of critical media.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”106465″ img_size=”full”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_icon icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-file-pdf-o” color=”black” background_style=”rounded” size=”xl” align=”right”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_custom_heading text=”Anti-terror legislation” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]In light of recent terrorist attacks in Europe, governments have passed stricter counter-terrorism laws. However, the measures have been cynically exploited to criminalise government critics or silence critical media.
Turkey is an egregious case. This phenomenon started small where dismissive official rhetoric was aimed at small segments – such as Kurdish journalists – but over time expanded to extinguish whole newspapers or television networks that espoused critical viewpoints on government policy.
After the 2016 coup attempt, the trend intensified further. Hundreds of journalists have been arrested, dismissed from their jobs or sent to prison under state of emergency decrees and anti-terror laws passed by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government.
In one case, in July 2018, three pro-Kurdish newspapers and a television station were closed down by order of an emergency decree. Under the decree, all assets, rights and documents and the debt owed to the shuttered media institutions and associations were transferred to the treasury.
In many cases, critical media companies and dissenting journalists are charged under the anti-terror act for spreading “propaganda for a terrorist organisation”. Many are charged for supporting peace with Kurdish separatists or just for expressing solidarity with others who face government reprisals. For example, in January 2018, five journalists — Ragıp Duran, Hüseyin Aykol, Mehmet Ali Çelebi, Ayşe Düzkan and writer Hüseyin Bektaş — were sent to prison for participating in a solidarity campaign for the shuttered pro-Kurdish Özgür Gündem newspaper.
But the trend toward the criminalisation of journalism that makes governments uncomfortable has spread beyond Turkey.
In 2015, five websites were blocked without judicial oversight in France. The administrative blocking came from the interior ministry on grounds that they “incite or defend terrorism”, under the Terrorism Act.
Even jokes can land journalists in trouble. French police searched the office of community station Radio Canut in Lyon in 2016 and seized the recording of a radio programme after two presenters were accused of “incitement to terrorism”. They had been talking about protests by police officers which had been taking place in France at the time. One of the presenters was put under judicial supervision and forbidden to host the radio programme until he appeared in court.
In Spain, comedian Facu Díaz was taken to court in 2015 for a satirical sketch from his online comedy show. The satirist faced charges under a law that criminalises the “glorification of terrorism” with punishment of up to two years in prison.
Governments are also using terror laws to spy on journalists. In 2014, police in the UK admitted they had used powers under terror legislation to obtain the phone records of Tom Newton Dunn, political editor of The Sun newspaper, to investigate the source of a leak in a political scandal. Police used powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, which circumvents another law that requires police to have approval from a judge to get disclosure of journalistic material. In September 2018, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the UK’s mass surveillance regime violated human rights.
But the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Bill – a piece of legislation which critics argue will have a significant negative impact on media freedom in addition to other freedoms – continued its passage through Parliament, and has already been passed by the House of Commons. The final hearing in the House of Lords took place on 15 January 2019. It was sent back to the House for further consideration after some amendments.
The bill would criminalise publishing pictures or video clips of items such as clothes or flags in a way that raises “reasonable suspicion” that the person doing it is a member or supporter of a terrorist organisation. It would also criminalise watching online content that is likely to be helpful to a terrorist. No terrorist intent is required. The offence would carry a prison sentence of up to 15 years.
Parliament’s own human rights watchdog, the Joint Committee on Human Rights, has recommended that the former clause be withdrawn or amended because it “risks a huge swathe of publications being caught, including… journalistic articles”. The government has not accepted the recommendation.
“The bill would introduce wide-ranging new border security powers,” said Joy Hyvarinen, head of advocacy at Index on Censorship. “A journalist could be stopped without any suspicion of wrongdoing. It would be an offence not to answer questions or hand over materials, with no protection for confidential sources.”[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Law enforcement – security measures” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]Measures designed to protect law enforcement officers or increase their powers have also become a threat for journalists.
These measures are sometimes the result of a state of emergency declared in a country. While the state of emergency in Turkey after the 2016 coup attempt is a prime example, the same has happened elsewhere.
In France, measures declared after the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris were used to ban photographer NnoMan from covering a protest in the city in 2016. The police justified the decree by the young man’s presence “at several demonstrations against police violence or the proposed labour law” which ended up in violent disorders, but failed to mention that NnoMan had a press card.
In other cases, the threat comes from ordinary laws. Spain’s Citizens Security Law punishes public protests in front of government buildings and the “unauthorised use” of images of law enforcement authorities or police.
In 2017, a Spanish police union filed a lawsuit against Mónica Terribas, a journalist for Catalunya Rádio, accusing her of “favouring actions against public order”. The union claimed she urged citizens in Catalonia to report on police movements during the referendum on independence, and that such information could help terrorists, drug dealers and other criminals.
The passing of a similar law has raised eyebrows in Bavaria, where the state parliament granted law enforcement broad new powers to act without “concrete suspicion” in May 2018. The law gives police new powers to access mobile phones, computers and cloud-based data. Law enforcement officers are allowed to amend or delete the information they recover under the legislation.
Provisions also include extending “preventative detention” powers where there is fear of public disorder, under which police can detain people for up to three months – previously two weeks – without prior judicial approval. Under the legislation, detainees can ask judges to review the legality of their detention, but prisoners must bring the cases themselves and have no right to state-provided lawyers for this purpose.[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Official secrets – leaks” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]Official secrets acts are another way in which legislation can obstruct media freedom.
In May 2017, six journalists were called to testify by authorities in the German state of Niedersachsen after the publication of articles that contained leaked information about law enforcement errors made during terror investigations. They were told they would face large fines if they refused to testify. The German Journalists Association called the procedure “intimidation” and “a risk for source protection”.
In the UK, a proposal is being considered that could lead to journalists being jailed for up to 14 years for obtaining leaked official documents. The major overhaul of the Official Secrets Act – to be replaced by an updated Espionage Act – would give courts the power to increase jail terms against journalists receiving official material. The new law, should it get approval, would see documents containing “sensitive information” about the economy fall foul of national security laws for the first time.
Jodie Ginsberg, chief executive of Index on Censorship, said: “It is unthinkable that whistleblowers and those to whom they reveal their information should face jail for leaking and receiving information that is in the public interest.”[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Case studies” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_custom_heading text=”Deniz Yücel, Turkey correspondent for Die Welt” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]
Deniz Yücel
The case of Deniz Yücel epitomises how journalism that is critical to the Turkish government, Erdoğan or their associates is being equated with terrorism.
Yücel, a Turkish-German dual national, was working as a correspondent for German newspaper Die Welt when he was taken into police custody on 17 February 2017, and was formally arrested on 27 February 2017.
He is one of hundreds of journalists arrested in Turkey since the 2016 coup attempt on charges of sedition and “spreading propaganda of a terrorist organisation and inciting the public to hatred and hostility” under the Turkish anti-terror act.
“This law is Turkey’s own Sword of Damocles that the state holds on freedom of expression,” said Özgün Özçer, Turkey correspondent for Mapping Media Freedom. “Journalists regularly face investigations when they report on the army’s crimes, the judiciary’s unfair verdicts, state oppression and so forth.
“Ironically, the propaganda charge is also a tool to allow government propaganda to prevail over the truth. It hides what truly happened and discredits reality to protect the state’s own version of the facts – the real propaganda.”
In Yücel’s case, “spreading propaganda for a terrorist organisation” amounted to a report he wrote about the energy minister after the minister’s email account was hacked by a group of activists. Six Turkish journalists were arrested for the same reason, but tried separately.
Yücel was subject to pre-trial detention until February 2018, when he was released. In the same month, his court case began. Prosecutors are seeking up to 18 years in prison.
Yücel returned to Germany after the intervention of Chancellor Angela Merkel and is being tried in absentia.[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Axier López and Spain’s gag law” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]
Axier López
In March 2016, Axier López was fined €601 for posting photographs of police making an arrest.
López, a journalist for Basque country magazine Argia, had posted two photos on Twitter of police arresting a woman who had failed to appear in court.
Under the Citizens Security Law 2015 – which critics call the “gag law” – disseminating photos of police officers “that would endanger their safety or that of protected areas or put the success of an operation at risk” can incur in fines of up to €30,000.
According to the People’s Party, which was in power when the law was passed, the aim of the law is to protect officers on duty, but police associations and even citizens’ associations have used it to target journalists. The legislation was introduced after a wave of anti-austerity protests in the country.
“Several journalists have been sanctioned with heavy administrative fines for taking photos at public demonstrations and events,” said Silvia Nortes, Spain correspondent for Mapping Media Freedom. “Others have even suffered judicial measures against investigative journalism, mainly in political corruption cases.”
Although the fine has since been revoked by a Catalan court, López said the law criminalised journalism, and digital newspaper Diagonal wrote: “This is the first time that a journalist is fined by the gag law.”[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]
About this report
This report is part of a series based on data submitted to Mapping Media Freedom. This report reviewed 269 incidents involving investigative journalists from the 35 countries in or affiliated with the European Union between May 2014 and 30 October 2018.
Mapping Media Freedom identifies threats, violations and limitations faced by media workers in 43 countries — throughout European Union member states, candidates for entry and neighbouring countries. The project is co-funded by the European Commission and managed by Index on Censorship as part of the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF).
Index on Censorship is a UK-based nonprofit that campaigns against censorship and promotes freedom of expression worldwide. Founded in 1972, Index has published some of the world’s leading writers and artists in its award-winning quarterly magazine, including Nadine Gordimer, Mario Vargas Llosa, Samuel Beckett and Kurt Vonnegut. Index promotes debate, monitors threats to free speech and supports individuals through its annual awards and fellowship program.
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Acknowledgements
AUTHOR Alessio Perrone
EDITING Adam Aiken, Sean Gallagher, Ryan McChrystal with contributions by Jodie Ginsberg, Joy Hyvarinen and Paula Kennedy and Mapping Media Freedom correspondents: João de Almeida Dias Adriana, Borowicz, Valeria Costa-Kostritsky, Ilcho Cvetanoski, Jonas Elvander, Amanda Ferguson, Dominic Hinde, Investigative Reporting Project Italy, Linas Jegelevicius, Juris Kaza, David Kraft, Lazara Marinkovic, Fatjona Mejdini, Mitra Nazar, Silvia Nortes, Platform for Independent Journalism (P24), Katariina Salomaki, Zoltan Sipos, Michaela Terenzani, Pavel Theiner, Helle Tiikmaa, Christina Vasilaki, Lisa
Weinberger
DESIGN Matthew Hasteley
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14 Nov 2018 | News and features, Turkey, Turkey Uncensored
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”103683″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]The head judge cleared his throat and called the journalist. As soon as he pronounced her name, “Seda Taşkın,” in his high-pitched voice, a look of incredulity spread across the faces of the handful of people watching the trial in the austere courthouse in Muş, a small town in Turkey’s far east. One lawyer, startled, dared to point out the unexpected sequence of words: “Did you just call her ‘Seda?’” Rıdvan Konak asked.
For the first time throughout the trial, the judge’s impassive eyes betrayed a glimpse of nervousness. It must have dawned on him: During the previous hearings, he had insisted on calling her “Seher,” the name on her ID card. After all, the prosecution had claimed that “Seda” was nothing but a code name for her allegedly illegal activities. In fact, Taşkın’s purported code name was the sole shred of ostensible evidence for the prosecution’s charge of “membership in a terrorist organisation,” and the judge was absent-mindedly throwing it away.
A faint and uneasy smile formed below his thin moustache. “You thought all along that we were fixated on that, but we were not,” he managed to reply, looking awkwardly at lawyers from his raised platform. It was an explanation he mumbled aloud twice – just like a little boy caught in flagrante delicto trying to convince his parents that he wasn’t misbehaving. It was also an odd excuse given that the court had twice refused to release the journalist on the grounds that more evidence was needed to prove that all her family and friends had called her “Seda” since she was a toddler. Yet a hopeful question popped up in everyone’s mind. Could this slip of the tongue be a good omen?
The fact the head judge so naturally ended up calling the journalist by the name everybody used showed how much regard the court paid to the accusations levelled by the prosecution. The journalist’s lawyer, Ebru Akkal, said distorted evidence and interpretations were common in free speech cases. “But in Seda’s case, we are dealing with blatant lies,” Akkal said. Taşkın, a reporter focusing on culture, education and women’s rights, was accused of sharing articles on her social media accounts – none of which were written by her.
“Let’s imagine for a moment that they were claiming that Seda killed someone. But the prosecutor is unable to present the weapon with which the crime was committed or establish the place where the murder occurred,” Akkal explained. “What’s more, the person whom they claim was killed is not dead but stands before them. This is the kind of case that Seda was faced with.”
And it did feel as though Taşkın was being personally targeted by the anti-terrorism unit of Muş in light of the massive rights violations she experienced from the moment of her arrest, including a fabricated tipoff, physical and psychological ill-treatment during custody, threats, as well as blackmail.
Nevertheless, Akkal said they expected Taşkın’s release until the very moment that the verdict was pronounced. The judges overseeing the case, however, opted to change the goalposts at the last minute, suddenly and arbitrarily replacing the original accusation with the vaguer charge of “aiding a terrorist organisation without being a member.” The court also refused to provide any additional time to the defense to object to the charge as required.
“I think that the court was convinced that Seda had nothing to do with a terrorist organisation. But they needed to find a charge because they couldn’t let any individual who got into the authorities’ grip go without a sentence,” Akkal said.
The court eventually handed Taşkın four years and two months on the charge of “aiding a terrorist organisation without being a member” and three years and four months on the charge of “conducting propaganda,” adding up to a total of 7.5 years in jail. The journalist, who has already spent 10 months in pre-trial detention at the Silivri Prison in Ankara, will remain in jail during the appeal process. Taşkın was forced to make all her defense statements via video-conference broadcast on a screen inside the courtroom 1,000 kilometers from the capital.
The court had already buried police irregularities by refusing to investigate the identity of the person who gave the tipoff despite repeated requests by lawyers. The extension of the email address in the files, which authorities neglected to black out, clearly indicated the tipoff came from a member of the police department. The judges also refused to heed Taşkın’s long account of the abuse, strip searches, beatings and threats she suffered. But by sentencing her, they have closed the case with a minimum of fuss for the police and the prosecutor.
Taşkın’s lawyers expressed indignation at the court’s handling of the case, describing it as blatant bias. “If the judges are to wash the prosecutor’s hands and the prosecutor, in turn, the police’s hands, why not just let the police run the investigation and issue a verdict?” Akkal said.
“Eclectic and sensitive”
Only two years ago, Taşkın was thrilled when she learned that she had been appointed to the eastern city of Van by the pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya News Agency. She thought that her new position in the agency’s second largest regional office would give her invaluable experience as a journalist in a much tougher environment. The decision also meant leaving her family home in Ankara for the first time in her life. Her parents, however, were concerned about her plans, since journalists working in Kurdish provinces have become even more vulnerable to arrests and detentions since authorities declared a state of emergency in 2016.
She possibly chose the most difficult context possible to work “in the region,” as many reporters in the field refer to the Kurdish southeast. The crackdown on Kurdish media intensified during a military assault that was launched in the winter of 2015 and peaked under the state of emergency clampdown. Many journalists were tracked, investigated, threatened and some, such as Nedim Türfent, jailed and charged with terrorism offenses.
Ultimately, Taşkın’s motivation and determination won her family over, and the young journalist went to begin her work.
The poise she showed was a pleasant surprise for her elder sister Yelda. “We saw the change,” she says. “Seda is someone very emotional and restless. Although she tried, she didn’t graduate from university. So, Seda started as an intern at the agency and was hoping to study journalism after garnering some experience.”
In Van, she felt empowered to express her personality, especially when covering stories that were colourful or touching more so than merely political. “She was eclectic. Her sensitivity and inner conscience allowed her to report on universal subjects such as ecology or women’s issues,” her sister said. She toured villages around the Van Lake, met local people and developed her passion for photography to such a degree that she didn’t want to go back to Ankara.
Then, one day in December 2017, her agency sent her to Muş to report on as many articles as she could. It was Taşkın’s first time in the rural and conservative province. She travelled first to Varto, a former Armenian town populated today by a majority of Alevis – a community whose belief system is often labelled as a heterodox and progressive form of Shia Islam – who had fled Dersim during the state-perpetrated massacres of 1938. Dersim, today called Tunceli after the name of the Turkish state’s military operation, is also the hometown of Taşkın’s family.
After reporting on the newly established culture and solidarity association in Varto, she returned to the provincial center, a place firmly under the control of the police. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) had won the municipality over the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and kept the city under strict state authority. She would be arrested shortly thereafter.
Bizarre significance of hearing dates
According to her lawyer Akkal, the mere fact that proceedings were conducted in Muş seriously affected the course of the trial. “The rulings of courts are so inconsistent and unpredictable. Had Seda been arrested in Ankara she wouldn’t even have stayed in prison a day. At worst, she would have been released at the first hearing,” Akkal said. “A very different approach exists in places such as Muş, Bitlis or Van. People are declared guilty at the moment they are arrested. [Authorities] don’t follow the evidence to find the suspect, they collect the evidence based on the suspect instead.”
Taşkın’s case followed the same trajectory. Among the several reports she was covering, Taşkın met with the family of 80-year-old Sise Bingöl, who has been in jail on terror charges since 2016 despite suffering from heart and lung disease. The recordings of her interview with Bingöl’s relatives, which were found after Taşkın was arrested, were used as evidence in the trial even though the journalist never published them. Once she was taken in custody, police seemed to have dissected her Facebook and Twitter accounts to find any post that could make a terrorism charge admissible in the eyes of the Turkey’s ever less independent judiciary.
Taşkın’s former colleague Hayri Demir, a journalist based in Ankara who followed the last hearing in Muş, stressed that social media posts containing news reports should be considered as a journalistic activity in itself. “Social media has become a publishing space for journalists. It’s a space where journalists share their own and their colleagues’ articles,” said Demir, who himself is facing 10.5 years for five tweets – all of which lacked any personal comment – on Turkey’s military operation against the Syrian town of Afrin in January.
“It’s six days per character,” he joked. “They are trying to entirely silence journalists by even incriminating their social media posts.”
Accusing journalists of sharing other people’s news articles also violates the individuality of criminal responsibility, a critical principle of modern criminal law.
But aside from the dubious practices of the authorities, there was one aspect to Taşkın’s case that seemed to amount to psychological harassment: The symbolic dates of the hearings. The second hearing of the case was held on 2 July, the 25th anniversary of an attack by an extremist mob in Sivas that killed 33 Alevi artists. The third hearing was set on 12 September, the anniversary of the 1980 coup, which resulted in imprisonment and torture for thousands of left-wing and pro-Kurdish activists. The fourth and last hearing was on 10 October, the third anniversary of Turkey’s deadliest-ever terrorist attack, which the Islamic State perpetrated against peace activists in Ankara. As for the date of the first hearing, 30 April, that happened to coincide with the liberation of Muş from foreigners after World War I.
The journalist was the first one to notice the significance of the dates, Akkal said. “She told me, ‘Ebru, they are doing it intentionally.’ I don’t believe that the dates were randomly chosen either.”
The verdict will become definitive if the regional court rejects her appeal – and because Taşkın’s sentences are each under five years, she will not have recourse to the Supreme Court of Appeals if the lower court rules against her. Regional courts are hardly known for their initiative, but both lawyers and taşkın retain their hopes for a rare fair reassessment of the case. In the meantime, lawyers have applied to the Turkish Constitutional Court to halt the execution of the sentence based on a precedent for journalists Mehmet Altan and Şahin Alpay. In January 2018, the Constitutional Court ruled that the imprisonment of both journalists not only violated their right to security and freedom but that there was not enough evidence to hold the men. Although first instance courts controversially refused to implement the decision, the pair was released at the end of a legal row months later.
Taşkın’s lawyers are also preparing to file an application at the European Court of Human Rights, although Akkal noted that it will take at least a year for either of Turkey’s top courts to make a decision. Taşkın, meanwhile, may face years in prison waiting for justice to be served. “After the initial shock of the verdict, she is now calm. She is trying to spend her time productively,” Akkal said.
Her sister Yelda said Seda had started to learn English in prison and was reading lots of books. “We were expecting her to be released in each hearing. But we would like anyone who is unfairly imprisoned to be free,” she said, adding that Seda has tried to remain conscious of the fact that she is not the only journalist in jail.
Indeed, during her defense, Taşkın not only called for her release but expressed her wishes that all her colleagues would walk free – an expression of human solidarity against organised unlawfulness that has riddled the law, one unjust sentence at a time.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1542196485676-71e5a902-cafb-4″ taxonomies=”8607″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
