Reporters Without Borders called on OSCE member states to demand that Russia immediately release imprisoned journalists

A two-day OSCE Council meeting began in Malta on December 5 with the participation of 57 member states of the organization. The event will also be attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

A two-day OSCE Council meeting began in Malta on December 5 with the participation of 57 member states of the organization. The event will also be attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The international organization «Reporters Without Borders» (RSF) has called on OSCE member states to demand the unconditional release of at least 38 journalists, including 19 Ukrainians, illegally detained by Russia. The statement was published on the organization's website.

«Despite President Vladimir Putin having been under an ICC arrest warrant since March 2023, and 37 Ukrainian and Russian journalists languishing in Russian prisons and one under house arrest, Russia is being officially welcomed at an OSCE meeting in Malta. Some journalists have disappeared, others are being held in unknown locations, and a Ukrainian journalist has died in Russian custody. This cannot be “business as usual”. OSCE member states must demand that Sergei Lavrov answer for these detentions and immediately release these journalists», — said Antoine Bernard, RSF’s advocacy and assistance director.

RSF called on OSCE participating States, especially members of the OSCE Group of Friends on the Safety of Journalists, to advocate by all possible means for the release of journalists and media workers detained or imprisoned in Russia and in the occupied Ukrainian territories, and to call on the Russian authorities to provide accurate and updated information to international bodies and families about the whereabouts and health of these prisoners.

The organization also asked to demand that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) be granted access to places of detention where journalists or media workers are held, both in Russia and in territories under its illegal control.

RSF recalled that among the 38 journalists currently detained Russia, there are 19 Ukrainians who have refused to cooperate with the Russian authorities. They are often arrested on trumped-up charges of «terrorism» or «espionage». They face up to 20 years in prison, and nine have already been convicted by Russian courts.

«Russia deliberately isolates these journalists, holding them in inhumane and degrading conditions, sometimes thousands of kilometers from Ukraine. The Kremlin continues to conceal information about the whereabouts and conditions of detention of seven Ukrainian journalists arrested after February 24, 2022: Dmytro Khlyuk, Yana Suvorova, Heorhiy Levchenko, Vladyslav Gershon, Anastasia Glukhovska, Yevheniy Ilchenko, and Zhanna Kyseleva.

The detention of Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchina by Russian authorities ended with her death in custody on September 19, 2024. She disappeared during a trip to the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine for reporting in August 2023», — noted in the organization.