45 cases of direct pressure on Crimean media recorded for two years

The human rights activists have recorded 45 cases of direct pressure on the media in Crimea for two years of the occupation.

This is stated in the appeal of the Media Trade Union of Ukraine.

In particular, the appeal says about the unlawful detention of media workers, the attacks on editorial offices and journalists, the obstruction of live footage, the seizure of equipment, the unprecedented bans on media coverage of activities of the occupation authorities and so on.

The journalists in Crimea are daily facing pressure exerted by the occupation authorities and security agencies that put them before a difficult choice: to be propagandists or leave the profession.

“Now it is impossible to work as a journalist in Crimea. I think I will have to leave Crimea as it is very difficult to be an objective journalist on the annexed peninsula,” journalist from Crimea Serhiy Mokrushyn said.

Those, who are unable to leave Crimea or unwilling to do so, work as journalists in the so-called “underground club” which informs the Ukrainian society about the occupied peninsula, the Human Rights Information Center correspondent reports.

The journalistic activities are complicated by the fact that only Russian TV channels are broadcasted in Crimea, besides the control of the occupying power and the existing censorship. The information from the Ukrainian media is extremely limited.

The roadblocks are another challenge for the Crimean media.

“Strange to say, the strictest control is at the Ukrainian roadblocks. It is not allowed to have more than two cameras, camera recorders, laptops, etc. when you are entering. And it produces a bad impression which is false,” says head of the Crimean Human Rights Group Olha Skrypnyk.

The human rights activists and journalists believe that Ukraine does not apply every effort to protect the media workers in Crimea and demand that the prosecutors initiate the criminal proceedings.