On 16 February Ukraine celebrates the Day of the Military Journalist, a profession that combines courage, endurance and high professional duty. It is military journalists who, working in combat conditions, risk their own lives to bring the world the truth about Russian aggression, the crimes of the occupiers and the heroism of Ukrainian soldiers. In modern warfare, where information is a weapon, their mission is of strategic importance.
However, military journalists are not only those who work on the front line. Under the temporary occupation of Crimea, journalism has also become a battlefield for the truth. Since 2014, Russia has systematically destroyed independent media on the peninsula, persecuting journalists and activists who dare to cover the real situation. Many have been forced to leave, while others continue to fight, working underground or through citizen journalism.
It is ordinary people armed only with smartphone cameras who have become the main documenters of repression against Crimean Tatars and all those who disagree with the occupation regime. Russian security forces are brutally cracking down on them: searches, physical violence, arrests, fabricated criminal cases – these are the methods by which the Kremlin is trying to destroy freedom of speech in Crimea.
21 Crimean journalists and activists are now in the FSB’s custody: Aziz Azizov, Amet Suleymanov, Asan Akhtemov, Vladimir Dudka, Dmitry Shtyblikov, Ernes Ametov, Iryna Danylovych, Marlen Asanov, Osman Arifmemetov, Aleksey Bessarabov, Remzi Bekirov, Ruslan Suleymanov, Rustem Osmanov, Rustem Sheikhaliev, Seyran Saliiev, Sergei Tsygipa, Server Mustafayev, Timur Ibragimov, Vladislav Yesipenko, Vilen Temerianov, Gennady Osmak.
Another 3 journalists were released due to the end of their sentences or as part of exchanges: Nariman Dzhelyal, Nikolay Semena and Nariman Memedeminov.
Military journalists and their colleagues in the occupied territories have a common struggle – the struggle for the truth. It is they who become the voice of those who cannot speak, who are imprisoned or under the tight control of the occupants. On the Day of the Military Journalist, we honour their work and the memory of the fallen heroes of pen and camera.
The world must know the truth. The pressure on Russia for crimes against journalists must increase. And we must remember: independent journalism is also the frontline where Ukraine’s future is being decided.