Justice for Journalists: Over 100 Media Workers Behind Bars in Russia and Belarus; 89 Arrested in Absentia

On the eve of the Inter­na­tion­al Day to End Impuni­ty for Crimes Against Jour­nal­ists, the grim sta­tis­tics sees 103 media work­ers in Russ­ian and Belaru­sian pris­ons and penal colonies. Their com­bined sen­tence is over 740 years.

“Dis­sem­i­na­tion of fakes against the Russ­ian army”, “pro­pa­gan­da of ter­ror­ism” and “par­tic­i­pa­tion in a ter­ror­ist organ­i­sa­tion” are the Crim­i­nal Code arti­cles most fre­quent­ly used against the Russ­ian jour­nal­ists.

Among the incar­cer­at­ed Russ­ian jour­nal­ists, the longest sen­tences were giv­en to:

• Ivan Safronov, Kom­m­er­sant – 22 years for “high trea­son”;
• Abdul­mu­min Gadzhiev, Cher­novik – 17 years for “financ­ing ter­ror­ism” and “cre­ation of an extrem­ist enti­ty”;
• Felix Eliseev, Telegram chan­nel “Kolkhoz Mad­ness” admin – 14 years for “high trea­son” and “pro­pa­gan­da of ter­ror­ism”.

— I know very well how my col­leagues behind bars wake up every morn­ing and can’t believe they are in prison. I feel the pain of their loved ones who are des­per­ate­ly wait­ing for a let­ter or a phone call. Their health is get­ting worse. Jour­nal­ists shouldn’t be detained for their work. It’s wrong. We must demand their imme­di­ate release, — Alsu Kur­ma­she­va, jour­nal­ist who gained free­dom via the pris­on­ers’ swap in Novem­ber 2024, Press Free­dom Advo­cate at RFE/RL, Nation­al Press Club mem­ber.

Out of the 75 jour­nal­ists impris­oned in Rus­sia, 27 are Ukrain­ian media work­ers from Crimea, Kher­son and Zapor­izhzhia regions sen­tenced to decades in prison on charges includ­ing “par­tic­i­pa­tion in a ter­ror­ist organ­i­sa­tion”, “high trea­son” and “sab­o­tage”.

On 23 Octo­ber 2025, Yana Suvoro­va, a 21-year-old admin­is­tra­tor of the Telegram chan­nel Meli­topol tse Ukraina, was sen­tenced by a court in Ros­tov-on-Don, Rus­sia to 14 years in prison.  On 2 Sep­tem­ber, RIA-Meli­topol jour­nal­ist Heo­rhiy Levchenko received 16 years, while Vla­dyslav Her­shon (Telegram chan­nel Meli­topol tse Ukraina) was sen­tenced to 15 years. Crimean media work­ers Remzi Bekirov,  Dmytro Shty­blykov and  Marlen Asanov have ear­li­er received the longest prison sen­tences of over 19 years each. The charges against these Ukrain­ian media work­ers include “high trea­son”, “sab­o­tage”, “espi­onage”, “extrem­ism”, and “ter­ror­ism”.

— We have a spe­cial con­cern for our col­leagues who were tak­en cap­tive by Rus­sia in the new­ly occu­pied ter­ri­to­ries after the full-scale inva­sion. These jour­nal­ists have been deprived not only of their free­dom, but also of their basic human rights – includ­ing the right to com­mu­ni­cate with their fam­i­lies or receive legal assis­tance. Russia’s actions rep­re­sent a grave vio­la­tion of inter­na­tion­al human­i­tar­i­an law, and we call on the glob­al com­mu­ni­ty to inten­si­fy efforts to secure their release.”

Sergiy Tomilenko, Pres­i­dent of the Nation­al Union of Jour­nal­ists of Ukraine; Mem­ber of the Steer­ing Com­mit­tee of the Euro­pean Fed­er­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists

Out of those media work­ers who fled Rus­sia after 24 Feb­ru­ary 2022, 76 media work­ers are want­ed and/or arrest­ed in absen­tia, with 36 prison sen­tences already imposed by the Russ­ian courts.  At least 20 jour­nal­ists have been con­vict­ed in absen­tia for “dis­sem­i­na­tion of fakes against the Russ­ian army” for sen­tences rang­ing from five to 11 years.

The “for­eign agents” des­ig­na­tion crim­i­nalis­es media work­ers abroad and severe­ly lim­its their civ­il rights, includ­ing the abil­i­ty to par­tic­i­pate in elec­tions, work in pub­lic office, engage in edu­ca­tion­al activ­i­ties, organ­ise pub­lic events, cre­ate any con­tent for minors, adver­tise their work, etc.

The crack­down is not lim­it­ed to Russ­ian nation­als. At least sev­en jour­nal­ists from the UK, Italy, Ger­many, France, Ukraine, and Roma­nia have been accused of “ille­gal­ly cross­ing the state bor­der” for report­ing from the Sudzha area of the Kursk region, then under Ukrain­ian con­trol.

Source: Jus­tice for Jour­nal­ists Foun­da­tion

In Belarus, 28 media work­ers are cur­rent­ly serv­ing prison sen­tences rang­ing from three to 14 years. In Sep­tem­ber 2025, Ihar IIyash was sen­tenced to four years in prison for “dis­cred­it­ing Belarus” and “facil­i­tat­ing extrem­ist activ­i­ties.” His wife, Bel­sat jour­nal­ist Kat­siary­na Andreye­va (Bakhvala­va), has been behind bars since 2020. She was ini­tial­ly sen­tenced to two years, but was giv­en an addi­tion­al eight-year sen­tence on charges of “high trea­son”, which the Supreme Court lat­er reclas­si­fied as “espi­onage”.

Source: Jus­tice for Jour­nal­ists Foun­da­tion

This year, 15 jour­nal­ists were released by Akek­san­dr Lukashen­ka for polit­i­cal rea­sons. How­ev­er, accord­ing to Andrei Bas­tunets, Chair­per­son of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists, they were“…effec­tive­ly deport­ed from the coun­try along with oth­er freed polit­i­cal pris­on­ers on unclear legal grounds and with­out any doc­u­ments or expla­na­tions.” Thus, the enforced exile has become yet anoth­er method of elim­i­na­tion of inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ism from inside the coun­try.

“More than 30 media pro­fes­sion­als remain behind bars in the coun­try (not includ­ing blog­gers). Sev­er­al col­leagues are await­ing tri­al, and new crim­i­nal cas­es con­tin­ue to be opened — not only against those still in Belarus, but also against those abroad. Such cas­es are ini­ti­at­ed under the so-called “spe­cial pro­ceed­ings” — that is, with­out the par­tic­i­pa­tion of the accused, and often with­out even noti­fy­ing them that crim­i­nal charges have been filed. The author­i­ties are putting pres­sure on the rel­a­tives of both impris­oned jour­nal­ists and those who have left the coun­try  aim­ing to restrict the infor­ma­tion about the repres­sions inside Belarus and to force jour­nal­ists into self-cen­sor­ship.”

Andrei Bas­tunets, Chair­per­son of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists

Andrei Bas­tunets, source: BAJ

In Belarus, at least 13 media work­ers are arrest­ed in absen­tia for up to 20 years cumu­la­tive­ly. Among the most wide­spread crim­i­nal arti­cles are “organ­i­sa­tion of mass riots” and “harm­ing nation­al secu­ri­ty”. Accord­ing to Andrei Bas­tunets, “at least 63 more cas­es against media work­ers are cur­rent­ly under inves­ti­ga­tion. We often learn of these cas­es through the Russ­ian Federation’s want­ed per­sons data­base: Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists are being sought in Rus­sia as well, under a coop­er­a­tion agree­ment between the secu­ri­ty ser­vices of the two coun­tries.”

Both in Rus­sia and Belarus, in addi­tion to crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion, media work­ers are rou­tine­ly added to offi­cial “ter­ror­ists” and “extrem­ists” reg­is­ters. This des­ig­na­tion blocks their access to bank accounts, restricts prop­er­ty and finan­cial trans­ac­tions, and hin­ders inter­na­tion­al trav­el. In Belarus, it also leads to the con­fis­ca­tion of prop­er­ty.

On the Inter­na­tion­al Day to End Impuni­ty for Crimes Against Jour­nal­ists, the Jus­tice for Jour­nal­ists Foun­da­tion, togeth­er with rep­re­sen­ta­tives of inde­pen­dent media from Belarus, Rus­sia and Ukraine, calls for the free­dom of all jour­nal­ists impris­oned for their pro­fes­sion­al activ­i­ties and for strength­en­ing glob­al safe­guard­ing mech­a­nisms to pro­tect media free­dom.