Zehra Dogan, winner of the 2019 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award for Arts, is a Kurdish painter and journalist. She was released from prison on 24 February 2019 after almost 600 days in prison in Turkey, during which she was denied access to materials for her work. She painted with dyes made from crushed fruit and herbs, even blood, and used newspapers and milk cartons as canvases. When she realised her reports from Turkey’s Kurdish region were being ignored by mainstream media, Dogan began painting the destruction in the town of Nusaybin and sharing it on social media. For this she was arrested and imprisoned. During her imprisonment, she refused to be silenced and continued to produce journalism and art. She collected and wrote stories about female political prisoners, reported on human rights abuses in prison, and painted despite the prison administration’s refusal to supply her with art materials.
Dogan also received the 2019 May Chidiac Foundation Award for Exceptional Courage in Journalism. She accepted the prize in Lebanon where she dedicated the prize to the people of Rojava. Dogan also featured at an exhibition at The Drawing Center in New York entitled The Pencil Is a Key by Incarcerated Artists which will feature drawings by incarcerated people from all over the globe. The exhibition will run until 5 January 2020.
Dogan’s first book, Nous aurons aussi de beaux jours – Écrits de prison (We will also have beautiful days – Writings of prison), a collection of her letters from prison during the 600 days she spent in detention, was released on 31 October 2019. From 6 to 23 of November, works by Dogan will go on display at Galerie des Femmes in Paris as part of her exhibition Œuvres Évadées (Escaped Works).
We caught up with Dogan to find out what she has been working on since winning the Index on Censorship award in April 2019.[/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:1574072523308-d110cf72-f9a9-3″ taxonomies=”22555″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Index on Censorship was established in 1972 in a febrile period: Idi Amin had taken power in Uganda, the Vietnam war continued, direct rule was imposed in Northern Ireland, there was a coup in Bolivia and Congo was renamed Zaire by its dictator president. As writer Robert McCrum said in our 40th anniversary issue: “The abuses of freedom worldwide in the 1970s were so appalling and so widespread that the magazine rapidly found itself in the frontline of campaigns. Index became a clarion voice in the cause of free expression.” The right to protest and freedom of expression are now being sought in Hong Kong and elsewhere, and Index is still to the forefront in reporting abuses. Here are just some of the conflicts between freedom and dictatorship we have reported on in the past 47 years.
The first issue of Index on Censorship magazine, in March 1972
The Clockwork Show vol 1, issue 1, March 1972
In an anonymous article about life in Greece under the regime of the Colonels’ junta, the writer considered the psychology of the situation; the feelings and attitudes, the long-ranging impact of this harrowing experience. “There is nothing more demoralizing than to be bound to a public body, an administration, a government with which one can never for a moment identify, which is the exact opposite of everything one believes in. One cannot live side by side with Philistinism, chauvinism, bigotry, blatant hypocrisy, crass ignorance, injustice, violence and brutality and not be affected by them, even if one manages—only just—to keep them out of one’s own life. Under this regime there is no relief; no exception: the regime has penetrated every single aspect of public life.”
March 1974: TV, politics and Chile Index on Censorship magazine
Book burning and brutality vol 3, issue 1, March 1974
A fascinating insight into life in Chile six months after a coup ended the tyranny of President Salvador Allende: worse was to come under a military dictatorship, reported Michael Sanders, an Englishman in Santiago. “When Allende left Chile to address the UN in December 1972, a leading opposition newspaper had as its front-page a photo depicting the president flushing himself down a lavatory, with the caption ‘ good riddance’. The contrast in December 1973 is gloomy indeed. Not so much, or not only because of the drab uniformity of censored newspapers that, for all they may be censored, willingly reflect the views of the Military Junta. But for the fact that 43.6% of the population have been deprived of all means of expression, of all normal communication, and live in daily fear of their lives and jobs.”
Russia, East Germany, South Africa: May 1979 Index on Censorship magazine
Black journalists under apartheid volume 8, issue 3, May 1979
William A Hachten reports: Black journalists came to the fore in the Soweto riots of 1976 when they reported from the ghetto for a white press without access. Yet black journalists still faced daily harassment under apartheid, which worsened with the death of Steve Biko in 1977. Vusi Radebe, a black stringer for the Rand Daily Mail, said: “The situation is worse since the 1976 riots. Police will beat up reporters on the slightest provocation for what they consider obstruction of justice.” While whites had 23 newspapers, there were none for non-whites to express their political frustration. Black journalist Pearl Luthuli said: “The black journalist can’t be objective. We try to tell it like it is but the white editors won’t print it.” Another said: “We are black people first, journalists second. If it comes to a conflict between the struggle and the job, the struggle comes first.”
Beckett and Havel: Index on Censorship magazine, February 1984
Iran under the party of God, volume 13, issue 1, February 1984
“Censorship was planned by the regime of the Islamic Republic even before the February 1979 revolution brought Ayatollah Khomeini’s theocratic oligarchy to power. This particular kind of censorship may not be without precedent in history, but it must certainly be rare. There were attacks on coffee-houses, restaurants and other public places by men armed with clubs and stones; unveiled women were harassed; slogans of the opposition were cleaned from the walls; banks, cinemas and theatres were burned” – a personal account of the first years of the revolution and its attack on culture, by one of Iran’s leading writers Gholam Hoseyn Sa’edi. “And it keeps on happening. The Islamic regime of today has gone a step beyond censoring the creations of science, culture and art, beyond censoring life itself: it has rendered life vain and all but unliveable.”
Romania, Albania, USSR: Index on Censorship magazine January 1991
A sense of solidarity, volume 20, issue 1, January 1991
Romania’s celebrated poet, Ana Blandiana, on censorship under Ceausescu and how she fought back. Her work was completely banned three times. “In my case, the form of censorship progressed from the banning of a word to that of a line, then of a poem, then of a book, to the total erasure of my signature as author: an eradication of identity. My inner freedom was assured by a decision I took in 1980, a personal one rather than as a writer. I decided to be outspoken and say what I thought at the risk of becoming a victim myself, rather than suspect a possibly honest person. At first it kept me sane, and then it helped me to be a normal writer, relatively free of self-censorship. This was the strongest form of censorship under Communism in the last 10 or 15 years, and was much more refined and subtle than the official censorship.”
How free is the Russian media? Index on Censorship, Spring 2007
The Big Squeeze, volume 37, issue 1, Spring 2008
“The fact remains that since the departure of the oligarchs, Russian media freedom has gone from the imperfect and beleaguered to the moribund. At national television, which 90 per cent of Russians say is their main source of news, editors receive weekly or even daily instructions from the Kremlin on the ‘line to take’ on important stories; around half of Russian viewers think that what they watch is objective, a 2007 poll said. Foreign coverage is polemical and outrageously politicised. The message of all this is ‘be quiet’. If you annoy the rich and powerful you face threats, beatings or death. Even when the Kremlin is not directly involved, its reaction to the persecution of journalists sends a clear message: if you offend the powerful, don’t expect the law to protect you.” Edward Lucas gave an early taste of what freedom of expression meant under Putin.
Grit in the engine, volume 41, issue 1, Spring 2012
Robert McCrum on the 40th anniversary of Index on Censorship. “The success of Index was not a foregone conclusion. Stephen Spender, its founder, was fully alert to the potential for windbaggery and failure. There was, he wrote, ‘the risk that the magazine will become simply a bulletin of frustration’. Actually, the opposite came to pass. Index became a clarion voice in the cause of free expression. The abuses of freedom worldwide in the 1970s were so appalling and so widespread that the magazine rapidly found itself in the frontline of campaigns. Perhaps the most important thing Index did, from the beginning, was to universalise an issue in peril of becoming a special interest: freedom was not ‘a luxury enjoyed by bourgeois individualists’. Along with self-expression, it was a human right, and an instrument of human consciousness.
The big squeeze: Index on Censorship magazine Spring 2017
Freedom of expression under pressure, volume 46, issue 1, Spring 2017
The spring 2017 issue of Index on Censorship magazine looks at how pressures on free speech are currently coming from many different angles, not just one. Special features on how to spot fake news, articles from former BBC World Service director Richard Sambrook and former UK attorney general Dominic Grieve, an exclusive interview with the Spanish puppeteer arrested last year, and fiction from award-winning writer Karim Miské.
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.
31 August 2019 – Ren TV reporter Evgeniya Mogilevskaya filed a complaint with the police against Irkutsk senator Vyacheslav Markhaev accusing him of an assault, Ren TV reported.
According to the reporter, she was interviewing the senator and asked him about his alleged ties with gambling businesses when an aide of the official started to push her and cameraman Klimkin away, trying to prevent them from filming.
At the same time the private security of the senator started twisting arms of Klimkin and tried to grab his camera. Mogilevskaya tried to film it with her phone, when Markhaev himself grabbed and twisted her arm and released the reporter only after she pointed out that they were being filmed by security cameras.
Source of Violation: Government/State Agency/Public official(s)/Political party
Editor-in-chief of “MK in Peter” accused of pushing policeman with a baby pram
29 August 2019 – Maxim Kuzahkmetov, the editor-in-chief of “MK in Peter”, was visited by child protection officers after a state-run local newspaper published a defamatory article accusing him of “pushing a policeman with a baby pram”, Lenizdat reported.
Kuzakhmetov said he was amused by the speed with which the guardianship officers reacted to the fake article published on 21 August 2019 in the Ekateringofskiy Vestnik, while a more serious journalistic publication can’t get government attention that fast.
Source of violation: Police/State security; Government/State Agency/Public official(s)/Political party; Another media
Roskomnadzor blocks Krot website because of interview with stoic
29 August 2019 – Roskomnadzor, the Russian state media regulator, blocked the Krot website because it published an interview with stoic philosophy professor Massimo Pigliucci, Krot reported in its Telegram channel.
The page containing the interview with Pigliucci, of City College of New York, was included on Roskomnadzor’s “black list” on 30 July on the basis of the law “About Information”. It is thought that the block occured because Pigliucci made comments on suicide: he mentioned that ancient stoics approved suicide and gave some examples of it.
Krot said that they did not receive any warnings before the blocking and due to its use of https protocol, the whole website was blocked, not just one page.
“We received no warnings, of course, but even if we did, there is no sense in talking to those who harass Russian people for love to Epictetus and Seneca. Due to this, we declare that we are not going to delete anything”, editorial team of Krot said.
Source of violation: Government/State Agency/Public official(s)/Political party
Anti-LGBT group threatens St Petersburg journalist with murder
27 August 2019 – Anti-LGBT group Pila sent an email with murder threats to Vitaly Bespalov, a St Petersburg-based journalist, who is the editor of LGBT website Parni PLUS, Bespalov said in a Facebook post.
Pila demanded Bespalov kill photographer Maxim Lapunov, who published the information about the tortures of gay men in Chechnya or pay 1 million rubles ($15,000); otherwise Pila threatened to kill Bespalov by the end of the year.
The email also said that the murder of LGBT-activist Elena Grigorieva, who was killed in St Petersburg on 22 July 2019, was also ordered by Pila.
Bespalov said that he tried to file a complaint about the email through a police website, but couldn’t do it due to system errors.
Courts in Moscow barred journalists from covering trial on mass protests
27 August 2019 – Journalists were barred from reporting at the Tverskoy district court in Moscow for two days while trials of people arrested during mass protests against the disqualification of independent candidates for Moscow city parliament were taking place, MBH Media reported.
The journalists were not allowed to enter the floor where the trial was going, instead they were forced to go down to the ground floor. An MBH Media reporter was told that the journalists can not enter the floor because of a “court decision”.
The journalists were barred from covering the trial on the mass protests in the same way at the Meschansky and Presnensky district courts also in Moscow.
Journalist summoned for questioning for video parody on Krasnoyarsk governor
27 August 2019 – Journalist Dmitry Polushin was summoned to the investigative committee because of a video parody of Alexandr Uss, the governor of the Krasnoyarsk region, in which Uss’ speech was matched with video from Bunker movie about Adolf Hitler, Polushin said in a Facebook post.
According to the journalist, the Investigative Committee summoned for questioning not only him, but other people who reposted his video parody on the governor. The video titled “Movie and the Germans. Planning meeting at the governor Uss’s office” was made by Polushin and first published on 18 July on the YouTube channel KrasNews. The video, in which Hitler was scolding his generals, was matched with the speech of Uss scolding his aids because of the recent scandal with the region’s Accounts Chamber’s head Tatyana Davydenko, who was fired after the interview in which she revealed that Krasnoyarsk officials are not capable of tackling wildfires in the region. In 2018 fires caused damage of 4 billion rubles (over $60 million) in the region.
Kisilevsk mayor accused local journalist of talking to the city residents “without permission”
26 August 2019 – Maxim Shkarabeynikov, the mayor of Kisilevsk in the Kemerovo region, accused Nataliya Zubkova, a reporter working for local online media outlet Novosti Kiselevska, of interviewing city’s residents without permission, Tayga.Info reported.
“Recently, the gatherings of the residents happened more often, which were organised by an editor of online media outlet Natalya Zubkova…In violation of the federal law, she doesn’t notify the local government about public gatherings, therefore putting herself and the residents to a danger”, Shkarabeynikov said in his letter to the city prosecutor Alexey Trefilov.
Zubkova was reporting on the city’s communal problems and interviewing residents of different districts. She was the first one who reported on such problems as an underground fire near residential buildings.
In February, around 200 residents of Afonino village came to meet her to tell her about charcoal dust in potable water. Police and ambulances were present at that meeting, which Zubkova believed was organised by the city government to show “the preparation for the public gathering”.
Zubkova believes that the mayor’s demands are unlawful.
Source of violation: Government/State Agency/Public official(s)/Political party
Mediazona reporter David Frenkel detained in St Petersburg
24 August 2019 – David Frenkel, a reporter and photographer with Mediazona, was detained in St Petersburg while covering a protests against the silencing of homophobic crimes, Mediazona reported.
According to Frenkel, police initially told him that he was detained for jaywalking, but later in told that he was detained “for the propaganda of untraditional sexual relations”. Once at the police station, the journalist was formally charged with disobeying police, allegedly because he refused to go to a police van.
Orenburg Election Committee files a complaint with police over a journalist’s phone call
23 August 2019 – The Orenburg Election Committee filed a complaint with police over a journalist call, Echo Moskvy in Orenburg reported.
A reporter for Echo Moskvy in Orenburg called Oxana Karnashenkova, deputy of the village parliament of Svetlisnkoye, introduced himself and told the deputy he would be recording the telephone conversation. At the end of the discussion, Karnashenkova asked the reporter to call her back to confirm some information.
Karnashenkova said that she didn’t know who was calling her and said that the journalist said that he was a member of the election committee. She filed a complaint to the police. The election committee also asked the police to check the complaint.
Source of violations: Police/State security; Government/State Agency/Public official(s)/Political party
Chita.ru editor-in-chief was questioned by police after the complaint from local deputy
22 August 2019 – Ekaterina Shaitanova, the editor-in-chief of local news agency Chita.ru, was questioned by police because of a defamation complaint from a local deputy Yana Shpak.
That same day, Chita.ru published the second part of the investigation on redistribution of signatures between candidates for the post of head of the region, providing evidence that signatures for another candidate were illegally assigned to Shpak and her registration was therefore unlawful.
“I explained [to the police] that I don’t see any signs of defamation, but see an excellent journalistic work”, Shaitanova said.
Source of violation: Police/State security; Government/State Agency/Public official(s)/Political party
FSB colonel files third complaint against newspaper
21 August 2019 – Sergey Sorokin, a colonel with the State Security Service (FSB) filed a complaint against local newspaper Yakutsk Vecherny for the third time, Mediazona reported.
Last year Sorokin twice filed a complaint against the newspaper to Roskomnadzor, the Russian state media regulator, about the disclosure of his personal data: First, when the newspaper published a news article about Sorokin beating a pensioner; Second, when the newspaper published a news article on winning a lawsuit filed against the media outlet by Sorokin.
This year Yakutsk Vecherny published an article about the pressure on the newspaper from law enforcement, mentioning Sorokin’s actions as one of the examples. Sorokin filed a complaint on the disclosure of his personal data again. After that, Vitaly Obedin, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, was summoned for questioning to Roskomnadzor. He called the incident “pure bullying” from the law enforcement authorities.
Source of violation: Known Private Individual; Police/State security; Government/State Agency/Public official(s)/Political party
The death of Togliatti journalist investigated under “Incitement to Suicide” article
16 August 2019 – Police opened a criminal case under the article 110 of the criminal code of Russia (“Incitement to Suicide”) to investigate the death of Togliatti journalist Mikhail Kurakin, Volga.News reported.
Kurakin, died on 17 July, leaving a note “I don’t know why, but seems like I have serious problems”.
Kurakin was believed to be the author of Telegram-channel “Komitet”, which was publishing critical comments on the local authorities, business and law enforcement.
Novaya Gazeta reporter barred from reporting on Great Terror mass grave
14 August 2019 – Employees of the state run Russian Military History Society attempted to expel Irina Tumakova, a reporter with independent Novaya Gazeta, from Sandarmoh forrest, where a mass grave containing victims of 1936–1938 Soviet purges were uncovered, on the grounds that the journalist may have American citizenship, Novaya Gazeta reported.
Later the same day, when Tumakova was reporting from the scene, two men approached her, introducing themselves as a district policeman and a migration service officer. They said that they received a call about an American citizen being in the grave zone and asked Tumakova to show her passport.
The journalist showed her Russian passport and was asked if she had a second citizenship. Tumakova answered that she had not and asked what would be wrong if she had. The men said there would be nothing wrong, however, they stayed at the scene and kept preventing Tumakova and two other journalists from the independent website 7×7 from doing their work, particularly barring them from taking photos of the graves.
Earlier this summer, Russian Military History Society has started a new excavation in Sandarmokh, trying to prove that the mass graves were not of the victims of the Soviet political repressions of 1937-1938, as independent historians say, but Soviet prisoners of war who were shot by the invading Finns in 1941-1944.
Source of violation: Police/State security; Government/State Agency/Public official(s)/Political party
Deputy governor of Khakasia sues media outlets for reporting on his conflict with his driver
13 August 2019 – Konstantin Kharisov, the deputy governor of the Khakasia region, said that he filed a defamation lawsuit against media outlets that reported on a conflict with his own driver, Leninzdat reported.
Kharisov didn’t specify what media outlets he sued.
News agency Agentstvo Informatsionnykh Soobshcheniy (AIS) published an article saying that Kharisov’s driver kicked him of the state-owned car because of the official’s rudeness. Later the article was republished by other local media outlets.
The mentioned driver at first said that media exaggerated the circumstances of the conflict. But later the government of Khakasia published a press release, saying there was no conflict at all.
The head of AIS, Alexandr Bortnikov said that he is confident about the truth of the information about the conflict that the agency published.
Roskomnadzor falsely accused Ekaterinburg local media of lacking age-restriction mark
12 August 2019 – The Russian state media regulator, Roskomnadzor demanded Ekatrinburg local media outlet It’s My City mark their articles with an age restriction marker, proving the lack of such markers with screenshots, in which the marker was obscured by Windows calendar, TJ reported.
The founder of the media outlet, journalist Dmitry Kolezev said he is going to sue Roskomnadzor.
Source of violation: Government/State Agency/Public official(s)/Political party
Chelyabinsk journalist was shot in the head from air gun
12 August 2019 – Yuliya Zyabrina, journalist with Cheyabinsk local newspaper Obshchestveniy Zashchitnik (Public Defender) was shot in the head with an air gun outside her house late in the evening of 8 August, Interfax reported.
The journalist was hospitalised with the head injury. Zyabrina believes that the attack was connected to her professional activity.
State sponsored hackers organised a phishing attack on independent journalists
12 August 2019 – Journalists working for investigative media outlets The Insider and Bellingcat became targets of sophisticated phishing attack allegedly organised by the hackers with the Russian state security service, Roskomsvoboda reported.
The attack with the use of ProtonMail service was confirmed by the administration of this Swiss protected email service.
ProtonMail said the attack was unsuccessful. ProtonMail and Bellingcat believe that the hackers behind the attack belong to GRU, Russian state security service that was reported to have a special hackers division.
Source of violation: Police/State security; Unknown
At least 24 journalists detained during mass protests in Moscow and St Petersburg
10 August 2019 – Ahead of the mass rally against the disqualification of independent candidates for local election, police broke into the headquarters of opposition leader Lyubov Sobol in Moscow and started a search, detaining all the journalists who were present in the offices.
Alexey Korostelev, a reporter with the independent broadcaster Dozhd, said that police pushed him down to the floor and then made him and three other journalists stand next to a wall for about 2 hours. Among the detained journalists were Maxim Kardopoltsev and Ernest Arutyunov, who also work for Dozhd; Timur Olevsky and Sergey Korsakov, a reporter and a cameraman working for Current Time TV (a project of Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty) and Anastasiya Olshanskaya, a reporter of MBH Media. All the journalists presented their press-cards and editorial assignments, but the police ignored them, taking away the journalists’ mobile phones and taking photos of their documents.
Police also raided the studio of YouTube-channel Navalny Live, forcing 10 media professionals to lay face down on the floor. Among the detainees were Alexey Shuplyakov, Egor Albitskiy, Alexey and Oleg Yaovlev, Alexandr Lukyanenko, Dmitry Nikolenko, Pavel Zelensky, Polina Arkatova and Olga Klyuchnikova. All of them were detained in the studio for 5.5 hours. Police seized their mobile phones and laptops, bank cards and documents.
According to Navalny Live, Alexey Shuplyakov and the Yakovlev brothers were dragged across the floor, with one of them suffering an injury to their eye; Pavel Zelenskiy was taken ill during the interrogation. All of the detained Navalny Live employees were taken to a police station for interrogation and later released without charges.
Anton Baev, a journalist with independent online media outlet The Bell, was detained for about an hour while covering protests in the center of Moscow and released after his documents were checked. Alexandra Sivtsova, a reporter with Meduza, said she was brutally pushed by a policeman while covering the protests.
Ekaterina Maximova,the head of the international desk at local broadcaster 360 Podmoskovie, was also detained at the protest and taken to a police department, despite her saying that she was not participating in the rally or covering it as a journalist, but happened to be there by chance. Maximova was asked whether she knows many foreign journalists working in Moscow and who of them support or criticise president Putin. After that, police offered to let her talk to a representative of Agora, a human rights organisation, but she said she was questioned again by some suspicious people in plain clothes. The head of Agora ater denied that the organisation’s representatives participated in the questioning.
In St Petersburg, Ekaterina Khabidulina, a reporter with ZAKS.Ru and Novaya Gazeta, was detained while covering the mass rally, despite having a big armband saying “Press” and a visible press-card hanging from her neck. She was taken away from the protest to a police van, where policemen checked her documents and later released her.
According to the Professional Union of Journalists and Media Workers, Lilit Sarkisyan, reporter with Novaya Gazeta and unnamed reporter with Kommersant were also briefly detained for a documents check and taken to a police van for a “prophylactic talk”.
Polina Antonova, reporter of Forpost, was also detained while covering the protests.
Category: Arrest/Detention/Interrogation
Source of violation: Police/State security
St Petersburg journalist assaulted, pepper sprayed
9 August 2019 – An unknown individual assaulted photojournalist Georgiy Markov, hitting him in the head and using pepper spraying against him.
Markov said he believes that the goal of the person who assaulted him was to intimidate him. Markov said the main told him: “‘So what would you do to me, f***ing journalist; we will find you all’”.
The journalist said he decided not to file a report to the police, noting that he receives a lot of negative comments on social media, but no direct threats. The assault happened on the night before a Saint-Petersburg rally against the disqualification of independent candidates for local parliament.
Factory director accuses local newspaper editor of extremism
9 August 2019 – Natalia Kuznetsova, editor-in-chief of newspaper Vestnik Goroda Otradnogo, told a state deputy that Andrey Kichaev, general director of local factory Remetall-C, was making allegations of extremism against her in retaliation for her paper’s coverage, Zasekin.ru reported.
The paper had previously published a series of articles on environmental problems, allegedly caused by Remetall-C.
Kuznetsova was told by police that Kichaev filed a complaint against her, accusing her of transferring money “to terrorists somewhere abroad”. Kuznetsova was summoned for questioning. Kuznetsova also said that the similar defamatory rumours were published by the local government-run newspaper Rabochaya Tribuna.
Rosneft security service allegedly spied on Baza journalists
8 August 2019 – Independent media outlet Baza said it learned from its sources that the state oil and gas corporation Rosneft’s security service was allegedly spying on Baza journalists, checking information on their computers daily and surveilling their phone calls and texts with the help of the latest technology provided by the state security services.
Baza says its journalists have also noticed that their batteries were draining much faster than normal, experienced connection issues, and their VPN services started turning off randomly. Their sources mentioned that the surveillance intended to find out whether anyone had ordered a Baza investigation into head of Rosneft Igor Sechin’s latest real estate deals.
In July, Baza published an investigation revealing that Sechin was building two new houses worth $270 million in the luxury village of Barvikha near Moscow. In a statement published on their website, Baza noted that no defamation lawsuit came from Sechin. “Their tool is provocations, but we’re ready for them”, the editorial board wrote.
The press service of Rosneft refused to comment on the accusations.
St Petersburg media outlet Fontanka significantly amended report on campaign
7 August 2019 – Local website Fontanka significantly amended a report on a candidate’s campaign for governor, Porebrik.Media reported.
The initial text was published on 6 August, describing the experience of reporter Maria Karpenko, who had worked as a promoter handing out leaflets on the streets about the campaign, which is backed by the deputy governor Alexandr Beglov. On 7 August, the text was amended to remove mention of payments to “volunteers” for leafleting, as well as a direct quote from Beglov’s headquarters on state funds provided for the campaign.
In the initial text, Fontanka said that it had obtained the document called “instructions” for promoters with explanations how to respond to residents’ questions, saying that two sources in Beglov’s office confirmed the document was original. In the later text, Fontanka said that the reporter did not have such a document and removed several quotes from those instructions, for example, the mentioning of opposition politician who was criticising Beglov and the mentioning of the road collapse due to heavy snow last winter and who the administration should be blamed for it.
The name of the reporter also was removed from the text, which Porebrik.Media explains as a possible wish of the author herself as the result of the editorial changes she disagreed with.
Source of violation: Employer/Publisher/Colleague(s)
At least eight journalists detained at mass protests in Moscow
3 August 2019 – Vladimir Romensky, reporter with independent broadcaster Dozhd, was detained at Pushkinskaya Square in the center of Moscow while covering a mass protest against the disqualification of independent candidates to Moscow city parliament, Dozhd reported.
According to Romensky, he was detained when he gave a branded microphone to his colleague. Police searched the reporter’s backpack and found his accreditation and editorial assignment. Romensky, who had been taken to a police van, was released, but soon after he was detained again and taken to a police station. He was later released without any charges.
Elena Vanina, a reporter with independent business newspaper Vedomosti, was also detained at Pushkinskaya Square and taken to a police van. She and other detainees were taken to a police station and later released without any charges.
Snob reported that its reporter Nikita Pavlyuk-Pavlyuchenko was also detained while covering the protests, he was released after showing his press credentials multiple times. Mediazona reporter Anastasia Yasenitskaya also said she was briefly detained despite showing a press-card.
Among other detainees were Dutch journalist Joost Bosman,MBH-Media reporters Alexandra Semenova and Alexey Stepanov, Baza reporter Petr Koronaev.
Tax inspection began after Dozhd conducted live coverage of mass protests
1 August 2019 – The tax inspectorate requested that independent broadcaster Dozhd provide income and expense statements, as well as documents confirming payment of income tax in 2016-2018.
A photo of the request was posted on Facebook by Natalya Sindeeva, the general director of Dozhd, a broadcaster.
Sindeeva suggested in an interview with Mediazona that the check was not planned and may be connected to the live coverage of mass protests in Moscow. The protests were against the disqualification of independent candidates to Moscow city parliament on 27 July. During that live coverage, policemen came to Dozhd studio to summon the broadcaster’s editor-in-chief for questioning.
Source of violation: Government/State Agency/Public official(s)/Political party
Police search home of administrator of popular Mordovian social groups
1 August 2019 – Police searched the home of Roman Toder, the administrator of popular Mordovian Vkontakte public groups “Podsluchano v Saranske” and “Podslushano v Ruzaevke”, Idel.Realii reported
According to Toder, the police did not show any documents and seized all his equipment. Toder believes that the extremism department of Federal Security Service (FSB) may have targeted him because of his professional activity on his Telegram-channels, where he also published articles by Otkrytaya Rossia (Open Russia) which is considered an “undesirable organisation” by the Russian authorities.
“In those public groups, we write about everything, as we are not going to be patient. Just yesterday there was a post about the need to obtain permission to hold a rally in Saransk on pension reform. We write what will not be shown on TV and what will be kept silent otherwise. We also understand that this is pressure from the law enforcement. I was more indignant at the way they seized the equipment, in which there was also personal information, Toder was reported as saying.
Moscow court barred journalists from covering open trial on Civil Union
1 August 2019 – A Zamoskvoretsky district court in Moscow barred journalists from covering an open trial on illegal inclusion of the charity fund Civil Union into the list of foreign agents, 7×7 reported.
The judge’s aide approached journalists and said there there would be no hearing today, but only “preliminary talk, during which attendees and journalists” are not needed.
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.
TV crew assaulted while reporting on illegal logging in Kharkiv region
28 August 2018 — Unknown individuals attacked a 112-Ukraine TV crew, which was reporting on illegal logging and theft of wood in the village Zolochiv, in the Kharkiv region, 112-Ukraine TV channel reported.
A group of men blocked the journalists’ car and struck its wheels, threatening the journalists with physical violence. A TV reporter called the police, who arrived, but did not intervene. Journalist Oleg Reshetnyak went on the air, described the situation, but the assaulters noticed this and took the camera during the live broadcast.
Reshetnyak was beaten during the assault. An ambulance was called to him.
UPDATE: 29 August 2019 — Police detained 49 individuals suspected of assaulting a television crew, Kharkiv region police reported.
“A conflict between security guards and journalists arose during the shooting of the video. Security guards blocked the car, tried to seize the camcorder and injured a journalist,” the Kharkiv region police press service reported.
One of the most active individuals is suspected of “obstruction of legitimate professional activity of journalists.” Two more individuals have been detained on suspicion of “threatening or abusing a journalist.”
According to police, private guards working for the logging company used violence, blocked the TV crew’s car, tried to seize the camcorder and injured the journalist. The journalist received multiple injuries to their back and kidneys, as well as bruises on their face.
Categories: Blocked Access, Physical Assault/Injury, Attack to Property, Intimidation
Source of violation: Known private individual(s)
TV correspondent harassed at nationalist rally
24 August 2019 — Nash/Maxi TV journalist Bogdan Karabyniosh was harassed on-air by unknown individuals at a nationalist march in Kyiv, Detector Media reported.
During a live broadcast, participants in the march people called the channel pro-Russian, shouted the name of the owner of the channel, Volodymyr Murayev, and Vladimir Putin. Afterwards, the unknown individuals called on the journalist to leave and not interfere with the rally. The journalist considered such actions as obstruction of his journalistic activity.
20 August 2019 — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s Chief of Staff Andriy Bohdan filed the lawsuit in the Shevchenko District Court of Kyiv against three journalists from Schemes, an investigative program that’s a joint production of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and public broadcaster UA:Pershyi. The three journalists are Nataliya Sedletska, Valeria Yegoshina, and Maksym Savchuk, Kyivpost reported.
The details of the lawsuit are currently unavailable, so it is unclear which of Schemes’ reports about the presidential aide Bohdan found defamatory.
“At this point, we have not received the text of Bohdan’s lawsuit. Therefore, we cannot comment on it,” the editorial board of Schemes wrote on Twitter on Aug. 21. “We are confident that the information we publish is reliable and are ready for the trial.”
Bohdan is a former lawyer whose most famous client was oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky. After Zelenskiy’s victory in the presidential election, Bohdan was appointed his chief of staff, heightening concerns over Kolomoisky’s suspected influence on the new president.
Schemes did several investigations into Bohdan. One of them revealed his multiple trips to Tel Aviv, where Kolomoisky resided at the time, while the lawyer was de facto running Zelensky’s election campaign. The show also reported on his secret meeting with the then-head of the constitutional court.
In an interview with Ukrayinska Pravda published on April 25, Bohdan said he was preparing to sue Schemes’ journalists for spreading false information that he had taken 11 flights to Russia, six of which were through Belarus. However, the journalists never reported that. In their investigation, they said Bohdan had made three trips to Russia since 2014 and crossed the Belarusian border 11 times “in an unknown direction during 2018-2019.”
Source of violation: Government/State Agency/Public official(s)/Political party
Drunk man assaults local TV crew
16 August 2019 — A drunk patron of a shop assaulted members of a TV crew from a regional TV station in Mariupol, Mariupol News reported. The name of the TV channel and the names of journalists were not disclosed.
The individual hit the cameraman and damaged a video camera, the local police press service reported. Journalists filed a complaint to the police. The officers found the offender, who turned out to be a 44-year-old resident of Mariupol.
The incident was investigated as an “obstruction of the legitimate professional activities of journalists”, which is punishable with up to three years in prison.
Categories: Physical Assault/Injury, Attack to Property
Source of violation: Known private individual(s)
MP calls journalist “a stupid sheep”
18 August 2019 — Maxim Buzhansky, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, who belongs to president Volodymyr Zelensky’s political party, called Olga Dukhnich, a journalist working for Novoe Vremya (New Time) “a stupid sheep”, Ukrayinska Pravda reported.
“Another stupid sheep who is a journalist for the odious media Novoe Vremya said in an interview with a representative of Servant of the People political party that I was nostalgic for the USSR and president Yanukovych’s times. I understand that some colleagues are too restrained to call things by their names, so I will help them. A stupid sheep from the odious media,” Buzhanskiy posted on his Telegram public channel.
In response, Dukhnich posted on Facebook that “to answer to Mr. Buzhansky is like trying to figure out a relationship with a pigeon that shit on your coat sleeve.” The journalist called on the politician to apologise to Novoe Vremya, which is a weekly magazine.
In an interview with the leader of Servant of the People, Dmytro Razumkov, Dukhnich said that Buzhanskiy was “nostalgic for the USSR and Viktor Yanukovych’s time.” Razumkov, for his part, said the MPs should be judged for the current and future acts.
In July 2019, parliamentary elections were held. Servant of the People Zelensky’s party gained more than 43 percent of the vote.
Source of violation: Government/State Agency/Public official(s)/Political party
Court leaves journalist under house arrest
15 August 2019 — The Korolyovsky District Court of Zhytomyr ruled that journalist and blogger Vasyl Muravitsky should remain under house arrest until 12 October 2019, Ukrinform news agency reported.
Prosecutor Vadym Levchenko filed a motion to change Muravitsky’s pre-trial detention from 24-hour house arrest to remand in custody. According to the prosecutor, there were risks that Muravitsky may hide or commit similar crimes by “writing publications on anti-Ukrainian topics.”
The journalist’s lawyer, Svitlana Novitska, insisted on changing the measure of restraint on personal commitment or bail, instead of house arrest.
At a court hearing the prosecutor read out Muravitsky’s correspondence with other individuals, in which publications, various Ukrainian politicians, the organisation of a press conference and fees were mentioned. In addition, the prosecutor provided a disk with screenshots of Muravitsky’s correspondence on Facebook, Telegram, Skype, as well as the e-mails.
The lawyer noted that such evidence is clearly inadmissible and is an interference with the private correspondence of her client. The prosecutor replied that the investigating judge allowed him to examine the journalist’s correspondence. The court took into consideration the evidence provided by the prosecution, Ukrinform reported.
On 2 August 2017, Muravitsky was arrested on suspicion of treason and undermining the territorial integrity of Ukraine because he worked for Russian news agencies. Until June 27 2018, the journalist was in custody, after which the court changed the preventive measure to house arrest.
On 6 August 2018, after the court hearing in Zhytomyr, activists from neo-Nazi C14 group splashed Muravitsky with the dye brilliant green as he left the building. (Known as ‘zelenka’, this dye was widely used as an antiseptic during the Soviet period but is now increasingly used in attacks against dissidents and political opponents in Russia and Ukraine, where it is still readily available. It is extremely difficult to wash off the skin, and though not as corrosive as most acids, it can cause chemical burns.)
Source of violation: Government/State Agency/Public official(s)/Political party
Man harasses TV crew in Odessa
8 August 2019 — An unidentified person interfered with and harassed a Dumskaya TV crew in a casino, Dumskaya.net reported.
The individual began to threaten the news crew when they learned that a live broadcast was in progress. “If I see myself on the TV screen, you will have a lot of trouble,” the man said to a female journalist who wanted to talk about possible gambling legislation.
The individual forcibly took the camera from the cameraman. The crew’s equipment was damaged as a result of the incident.
The journalists filed a complaint with the police.
Categories: Physical Assault/Injury, Attack to Property, Intimidation
Source of violation: Unknown
MP called to attack pro-Russian TV channels with anti-tank missile
12 August 2019 — Appearing on Pryamiy TV, People’s Front MP Serhiy Vysotsky said pro-Russian television channels should be blown up with an anti-tank missile, Strana.ua reported.
“These channels that we are talking about, they work against Ukraine — in favor of the enemy, all the journalists who work there — they are combatants of the Russian Federation. And what should be done with them is to blow them up with an anti-tank guided missile, that is, to close them,” Vysotsky said during a talk show.
The head of the National Union of Journalists, Serhiy Tomilenko, commented that the deputy’s appeal was an incitement to hostility which is criminalised in Ukraine.
“With anxiety I note the escalation of pressure on the TV channel. I hope that the new government will find the strength to preserve freedom of expression, to stop the pressure and to ensure the right of journalists to the profession,” the Channel 112 Ukraine CEO Yehor Benkendorf said.
On July 13 2019, the main office of TV Channel 112 Ukraine was attacked with a rocket-propelled grenade in Kyiv. The police still haven’t found the offenders.
During the parliamentary elections of 2019, Vysotsky ran for European Solidarity political party of the ex-president Poroshenko, but was not elected.
Source of violation: Government/State Agency/Public official(s)/Political party
Court rules against independent TV channel
6 August 2019 — The commercial court of Kyiv granted far right groupC14’s claim against Hromadske TV, Hromadske reported.
C14 filed a lawsuit against Hromadske TV “on the protection of honour, dignity and business reputation” in July 2018. One of the documents in the statement of claim featured a copy of a tweet posted to the Twitter of the media organization’s English-language service Hromadske International, which describes C14 as a “neo-Nazi group”. The tweet was posted on May 4 2018, when representatives of C14 captured and forcefully took Brazilian militant Rafael Lusvarghi to Ukraine’s Security Service.
The court noted that the information circulated by Hromadske in May 2018 “harms the reputation” of C14 and ordered Hromadske to refute the information and pay 3,500UAH ($136) in court fees to C14.
Olena Tchaikovska, the attorney for Hromadske TV, called the decision “incorrect and illegal.” “It introduces an egregious tendency that suppresses freedom of speech. We will appeal it,” she said.
“We are surprised by this decision. Not only does it contradict the judicial logic, but is also a dangerous precedent for other media and for freedom of speech in general,” editor-in-chief of Hromadske Angelina Karyakina said of the decision.
“The position of C14 is that they are not a neo-Nazi group in their activities or in the nature of their activities. They are a nationalist group, but they are by no means neo-Nazi,” said Victor Moroz, C14’s lawyer at a previous court hearing. According to Moroz, what Hromadske called the organisation harms the business reputation of C14.
Hromadske television defends its position and insisted that it did not commit any violations by characterising the organisation as “neo-Nazi.”
UPDATE:
7 August 2019 — A number of international human rights organisations have criticised the decision of the commercial court of Kyiv, the Institute of Mass Information reported.
Freedom House Ukraine qualified this decision as a dangerous precedent of interference with freedom of opinion and expression in Ukraine. “C14 can contest/deny Hromadske’s characterisation but it is the right of the media to publish their view, in good faith, based on the information they gathered” on C14 and its members, “many of whom declared that they joined the group because of its neo-Nazi orientation”, Matthew Shaaf, director of Freedom House Ukraine said on. Shaaf believes an increase in self-censorship among media in Ukraine could be the most pernicious impact of ruling against Hromadske for calling C14 neo-Nazi.
Source of violation: Government/State Agency/Public official(s)/Political party
Local TV crew assaulted
1 August 2019 – A Kapri TV crew was assaulted by unidentified individuals and a political aid of a parliamentary candidate in Pokrovsk Donetsk region, the Institute of Mass Information reported.
As a result of the assault, the cameraman received a concussion, his camera and mobile phone belong to journalist Alyona Sobolenko were damaged.
According to Sobolenko, Vitalii Verbicky, a political aide working for MP candidate Ruslan Trebushkin, broke her smartphone after snatching it from her hands as she attempted to enter the building. Verbicky then forcefully shoved the cameraman into the building where a meeting of the members of the district election commission and the city leadership was taking place.
The journalists had gone to the offices to investigate why the election commission members were not engaged in recounting a local vote, but instead were meeting with Trebushkin himself behind closed doors.
Once in the building the cameraman reported he was assaulted and his camera was broken. The individuals also destroyed the memory card containing video, Sobolenko said. The cameraman said he was threatened with further violence and that the men wanted to know if there were additional TV crews outside. The cameraman was prevented from leaving the building for half an hour.
Sobolenko, who remained in the parking lot, called the police to the scene of the incident. “The police did not arrive at once, I had to call three times, but the officers were in no hurry … We were very worried because we did not know what was going on behind closed doors in the room… We recorded the beating in the hospital, and today called an ambulance again because the cameraman had dizziness, he was diagnosed with a brain injury,” Sobolenko told IMI.
When the police finally arrived, they were prevented from accessing the building by a crowd of men, who blocked the entrance. Subsequently, the police called for reinforcements and freed the cameraman.
The journalists filed a complaint with the police. A criminal case was opened on the article “obstruction of journalists’ legal activities.”
