Ukrainian cities host photo exhibition “Crimea through the eyes of citizen journalists: 10 years in captivity”
Russian occupying authorities have exercised effective control over the Crimean Peninsula for more than ten years. In the first weeks of the occupation, Russian security forces virtually eliminated all professional journalism in Crimea to suppress freedom of speech, seize control of the media and force journalists to spread Russian propaganda. As a result, numerous Crimean media outlets shut down, and many journalists left the peninsula.
According to the Office of the President of Ukraine in Crimea, 218 people are currently illegally imprisoned in occupied Crimea, 133 of whom are Crimean Tatars.
Russian security forces frequently conduct mass house searches and arrest Crimean Tatars without justification. On March 5 of this year, occupying forces abducted, accused of terrorism and imprisoned the Crimean Tatar Ali Mamutov, as reported by his brother, Fevzi Mamutov, deputy of the Odesa Regional State Administration and head of the NGO “Crimean Tatars of Odesa”. He explained that it’s common practice for the occupation authorities to detain Crimean Tatars and then try them in illegitimate “courts” on the peninsula or in Russian courts allegedly for terrorism or extremism, although these individuals have committed no crimes.
Mamutov emphasised that most political prisoners face terrible detention conditions. They can be tortured, placed in penal isolation centres, denied medical care, forbidden to communicate with their families, or deported from Crimea to penalty colonies within the Russian Federation. He highlighted that such actions by the occupying power of the Russian Federation are criminal against the citizens of Ukraine and violate human rights and international humanitarian law.
“The photographs in the photo exhibition depict illegal arrests of Crimean Tatars, searches of their homes and trials on fabricated criminal cases. This is almost 150 square meters of photo evidence of the abuse of the Crimean Tatar people by the Russian occupiers. The exhibition is timed to mark 10 years of the Russian occupation of Crimea, to summarise and outline all the crimes committed by the Russian Federation on the territory it has occupied,” said Victoria Nesterenko, project manager of the Human Rights Centre ZMINA.
Victoria NesterenkoDenys Chystykov, Deputy Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, said that immediately after the beginning of the temporary occupation of Crimea, Russian authorities began actively restricting freedom of speech to prevent disclosure of their war crimes. They banned Ukrainian local and national media. One of the most striking examples of persecution was the ban on the Crimean Tatar TV channel ATR.
These events led to the emergence of citizen journalists in Crimea, who risk their lives daily to cover ongoing events in the occupation. Later, unofficial human rights and journalistic initiatives arose in the occupied Crimea, informing us about the crimes committed by Russia.
Over time, journalists from Ukrainian media began to travel to the temporarily occupied Crimea, but these visits carried life-threatening risks, as Russian security services constantly pursued them.
Oleksandra Yefymenko, one of the journalists who managed to work on the peninsula for some time, said she and other colleagues who worked in Crimea during these years could not physically cover the entire amount of information. “There were days when I could attend three or four court hearings on our political prisoners,” she recalled.
“And then they appeared: Crimean Tatars with phones… They began to perform the function of journalists, covering, literally, every trial, every detention. In addition to the list of political prisoners, there is a separate list of imprisoned Crimean journalists. Most of them are citizen journalists of the Crimean Solidarity initiative… As of now, 17 of my colleagues are on this list,” Yefymenko said.
During the 10 years of occupation of the peninsula, occupying forces have illegally persecuted at least 21 journalists. Among them are “Radio Liberty” journalist Vladyslav Yesypenko, citizen journalists – Amet Suleymanov, Iryna Danylovych, Server Mustafaev, Osman Arifmemetov, Marlen Asanov and others.
During 2022-2023, ZMINA Human Rights Centre recorded 162 cases of attacks against professional media workers and citizen journalists, editors of traditional and online publications, Telegram channels, and online activists. The most common methods of attack on journalists under occupation are threats, searches, detentions, and administrative and criminal proceedings, which create high risk for their activities.
ZMINA human rights organisation stated that since Russia cannot completely suppress freedom of speech at the legislative level, the occupation authorities are constantly looking for reasons to detain journalists, search their homes, and accuse them of sabotage or terrorism.
Citizen journalists in Crimea took and published the photos used in the exhibition, “Crimea through the eyes of citizen journalists: 10 years in captivity,” at various times since the beginning of the temporary occupation of the peninsula. The photos depict the repression of the occupation authorities of the Russian Federation against the Crimean Tatars because of their pro-Ukrainian position – illegal searches, detentions, arrests, and trials on trumped-up criminal cases. The photographers remain anonymous due to security reasons.
A photo exhibition on city squares included an information tent where people could participate in the “Letters to Free Crimea” campaign. Visitors could choose a postcard featuring Crimea and write letters of support to political prisoners. Organisers will send these letters to the prisons where Crimean activists are unjustly detained, offering a much-needed morale boost to those behind bars.
