June 2022 in Europe and Central Asia: A free expression round up produced by IFEX's Regional Editor Cathal Sheerin, based on IFEX member reports and news from the region.
Evidence that Russian troops executed Maks Levin in Ukraine; 29 UK journalists banned from Russia; spurious charges and harsh sentences in Belarus; a mass detention of Kurdish journalists in Turkey; and the UK decides Julian Assange can be extradited.
413 crimes against journalists in Ukraine
An investigative report released in late June by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) found credible evidence that the journalist Maks Levin and his friend Oleksiy Chernyshov – both killed in Ukraine on 13 March – were executed by Russian troops. RSF also believes that the men may have been interrogated and tortured prior to their deaths.
According to IFEX’s regional member, the Institute of Mass Information (IMI), Levin is one of 33 members of the press (6 of whom were women journalists) killed by Russian forces since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Of these, eight (including two women journalists) have been killed in the course of their work and 25 have been killed either as combatants defending their country or during other activities unrelated to their work.
In the first four months of the war, IMI has recorded 413 “crimes against journalists” in Ukraine committed by Russian forces, including 21 incidents of journalists being fired on and 58 death threats sent to members of the press.
Mid-month saw some welcome news when Ukraine’s parliament ratified the Istanbul Convention on combating violence against women. Amnesty International’s Agnès Callamard described the news as a “decisive step in the fight against gender-based violence” and pointed to its timeliness in light of the many disturbing reports of sexual violence against women in Russian-occupied territories. “Prompt implementation should equip the Ukrainian authorities to deal with these atrocities, and serve to reassure the survivors and give them confidence to seek justice,” she said.
Further restrictions on the press in Russia
In Russia, where criticism of the invasion is suppressed – and where referring to Russia’s offensive as an invasion or war could see you prosecuted – polls show that the majority support the direction that President Putin’s government is taking on Ukraine.
In a recent survey conducted by the independent pollster Leveda Center (declared a ‘foreign agent’ in 2016), 74% of respondents said that international sanctions imposed on Russia were intended to ‘humiliate’ the country; 75% said that Russia should continue with its current Ukraine policy. This is unsurprising considering that Russians’ most trusted source of information is television, which pumps out huge amounts of pro-Kremlin propaganda daily.
Back in March, legislation criminalising the dissemination of ‘disinformation’ about the army came into effect, making it virtually impossible to report accurately on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In June, lawmakers proposed new legislation which, if passed into law, will further restrict the press. As the Committee to Protect Journalists reports, the new bill imposes prison terms for “vague [SIC] actions against state security or for communications with foreign groups”. Under the legislation, “secretly establishing and maintaining contact” with a foreign entity “in order to assist them in activities knowingly directed against the security of the Russian Federation” will be punishable by up to eight years in prison. Those who make “public calls for activities against the security of the Russian Federation or for hindering the exercise of their powers by government agencies and their officials,” will face up to seven years behind bars.
As part of their determination to control the narrative about the war in Ukraine, the Russian authorities issued travel bans for 29 UK journalists in June, alleging their “deliberate dissemination of false and one-sided information about Russia and the events in Ukraine”.
Spurious charges and harsh sentencing in Belarus
The Belarusian Association of Journalists continues to record attacks on the independent press carried out by the authorities. In June, it published its 2022 list of jailed journalists, of which there were 29 (including ten women journalists). According to the organisation’s report, from the start of the year until 10 June, there were 19 detentions of members of the press and 24 property searches.
The trials of journalists and other independent voices continued in June. Among those cases of particular interest to IFEX members were:
- Philosopher and Belsat TV host Uladzimir Matskevich, sentenced to five years in prison at a closed trial on charges of creating an extremist group, insulting the president and public order offences. He had been in detention since August 2021.
- RFE/RL Freelancer Andrey Kuznechyk, sentenced to six years in prison on charges of creating an extremist group.
- Novy Chas chief editor Aksana Kolb, sentenced to 2.5 years’ imprisonment in an open correctional facility after being convicted of public order offences.
- Journalist Iryna Slaunikava, who went on trial on charges of leading an extremist group and organising activities that disrupt the social order; she faces seven years in prison if convicted.
- Journalists and activists Andrei Aliaksandrau, Iryna Zlobina, Dzmitry Navazhylau and Iryna Leushyna, who went on trial behind closed doors in the BelaPAN news agency case; they face several spurious charges ranging from tax evasion to treason.
There are currently 1,238 political prisoners in Belarus, more than double the amount this time last year. Rights organisation Viasna, whose chairperson Ales Bialiatski has been behind bars since July 2021, provides details of them all.
Authorities target Pride and Kurdish media in Turkey
The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, wrote to Turkey’s Minister of Interior and Minister of Justice this month, calling for an end to the stigmatisation of LGBTQI+ people and for their freedoms of assembly, association and expression to be upheld.
She was responding to the sweeping restrictions imposed over the years on LGBTQI+ events and the promotion of homophobia by some politicians, all of which has seen Turkey rated the second worst country in Europe for LGBTQI+ people.
As if to justify Mijatović’s concerns, in mid-June, the authorities banned all events marking the 30th annual Pride Week in Istanbul. In response, LGBTQI+ groups issued a joint statement declaring: “We refuse to be ashamed, forgotten, to abandon, lose, and take a step back. We do not consent to our history, present and future being taken away from us with hate speech, targeting, bans and threats.”
A Pride march went ahead anyway on 26 June. Police responded in their characteristically brutal fashion by arresting at least 373 participants and beating several.
The arrests, trials and persecution of journalists continued in June, including the shocking imprisonment of 15 journalists and one media worker in the predominantly Kurdish province of Diyarbakır. The 16 were detained on 8 June during raids on their homes and offices. Although a court gag order is in place, the journalists’ lawyer said that they were charged with “membership of a terrorist organisation”, and that these charges were based on the content of their journalism. Counter-terrorism legislation is widely used to target journalists and human rights defenders in Turkey: a report published this month by the World Organisation Against Torture shows that – in 2020 alone – a staggering 208,833 individuals were investigated for “membership of a terrorist organisation”.
This month also saw the case against IFEX member Erol Önderoğlu and his co-defendants (on trial for “propagandising for a terrorist organisation”) postponed yet again, and Amnesty International name jailed civil society leader Osman Kavala and his fellow Gezi Park defendants as prisoners of conscience.
Erosion of rights in the UK
In the UK, the Home Secretary approved the extradition to the US of publisher Julian Assange, who faces 175 years in prison on charges linked to Wikileaks’ publication of information in the public interest. Assange will appeal the decision.
Several IFEX members condemned the Home Secretary’s decision, calling for Assange’s immediate release and for the charges against him to be dropped. Among them were ARTICLE 19, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the European Federation of Journalists, Index on Censorship, PEN America, PEN International and Reporters Without Borders.
Later in the month, the government proposed a new ‘Bill of Rights’ to replace the Human Rights Act – thus setting the alarm bells ringing for rights defenders.
Human rights organisation Liberty – which has provided a detailed analysis of the proposed changes – has said that the legislation will significantly weaken an individual’s rights: “It will make it harder for ordinary people to get justice. And it will make it easier for public authorities to ignore their responsibilities to respect and protect your rights”.
In a brief article, Human Rights Watch lists some of the most concerning aspects of the bill, including the option to disregard judgements by the European Court of Human Rights, and the intention to “distinguish people deserving of their human rights protections from those the government thinks don’t deserve them based on their conduct”.
