russia-jails-journalist-for-two-years-for-opposing-ukraine-war-detains-five-more-reporters

On Thursday, a Russian court handed down a two-year prison sentence to a journalist for criticising Moscow's special military operation in Ukraine. Additionally, over a 24-hour period, police in Moscow detained five other reporters.

 

Since Russia's military intervention in Ukraine two years ago, the country has increasingly criminalised and deemed on-the-ground reporting hazardous. Individuals who challenge the Kremlin's narratives face arrests and fines.

 

According to his lawyer, journalist Mikhail Feldman was accused by a court in the western exclave of Kaliningrad of discrediting Russia's armed forces through a series of posts on the VKontakte social network, as reported by the OVD-Info and Memorial rights groups.

 

"This is exactly the punishment the prosecution asked for," OVD-Info said. "In addition to being imprisoned, Feldman was banned from administering websites for two years."

 

Russia has initiated numerous criminal cases against individuals who oppose its campaign against Ukraine. Military censorship laws in place make it punishable for Russians to criticise the offensive online or for journalists to use information not provided by Russian officials, potentially resulting in years of imprisonment.

 

The sentencing follows the detention of five independent journalists by Moscow police in the past 24 hours, with one journalist reporting being subjected to physical assault, as per OVD-Info's report on Thursday.

 

SOTAvision journalist Antonina Favorskaya was taken for interrogation late Wednesday after serving a 10-day jail term for paying respects at the grave of late opposition politician Alexei Navalny. 

 

Her colleagues, Alexandra Astakhova and Anastasia Musatova, were detained by police when they arrived to meet her at the detention centre where she was due to be released, according to SOTAvision.

 

In another incident early Thursday, police arrested reporters Ekaterina Anikievich from SOTAvision and Konstantin Zharov from RusNews, who were filming near Favorskaya's residence.

 

Since the onset of its assault on Ukraine, Russia has either banned, blocked, or attempted to censor almost all independent media organisations still functioning in the country. 

 

Many independent journalists have fled following the offensive, while those who remain face significant risks. US reporters Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva are presently in custody awaiting trial.