November 2 is the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists.
The work of journalists has always been most in demand in difficult times, when they, risking their own lives and health, continue to fulfill their duties. In particular, the Crimean Tatar Resource Center sincerely thanks all journalists for their courage, endurance and dedication to truthful coverage of events during the Russian-Ukrainian war, which began almost 10 years ago.
We would like to remind you that those journalists who continue to work in occupied Crimea since 2014 are also worthy of attention.
So, at first professional journalists continued to work on the peninsula, but as pressure grew, most of them were forced to leave for mainland Ukraine, while some remained and clandestinely prepared materials for the Ukrainian media. As a result, citizen journalism began to develop in the territory. Ordinary people, forced to live under temporary occupation, picked up mobile phones and turned on the camera to record numerous offenses against representatives of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people.
Russian security forces, during searches in the homes of activists or during court sessions in Crimea, could simply knock out the phone and camera from journalists who recorded everything on video. Sometimes the occupiers also used physical force against them. Russian legislation was used as a tool of pressure and reprisals against activists. Journalists were brought to administrative responsibility for allegedly organizing or participating in an unauthorized meeting.
Already, among the numerous political prisoners of the Kremlin there are a number of activists, citizen journalists, and bloggers from Crimean Solidarity.
15 Crimean journalists paid for their position and are now in the dungeons of the FSB: Server Mustafaev, Timur Ibrahimov, Marlen Asanov, Seyran Saliiev, Remzi Bekirov, Ruslan Suleymanov, Osman Arifmemetov, Rustem Sheykhaliev, Amet Suleymanov, Riza Izetov, Emir-Huseyn Kuku, Oleksii Bessarabov, Nariman Dzhelyalov, Vladyslav Yesypenko and Iryna Danylovych.
The peninsula has been turned into a lawless territory with the lowest level of freedom of speech.
The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 marked a new stage of brutal repression of independent journalism in Ukraine. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, according to the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, the occupiers have killed more than 70 Ukrainian and foreign media workers.
The Crimean Tatar Resource Center calls on the international community to continue to increase pressure on the occupying state so that our compatriots can continue their professional activities, and all those responsible are punished accordingly.