The Union of Journalists of Russia will fight military censorship after the war

The Union of Journalists of Russia, which considers itself a non-political public association and is financed from the state budget, will fight military censorship after the end of the war in Ukraine.

According to the head of the organization Vladimir Solovyov (not to be confused with the TV presenter “Russia-1”)the SSR will insist on the cancellation of responsibility under articles about fakes and discrediting the Russian army “after the end of the special operation in Ukraine”.

According to the article on fakes, they are tried for publishing any information about the war in Ukraine, different from the version of the Ministry of Defense of Russia. This is punishable by up to 15 years in prison. According to the calculations of “OVD-Info”, in 2022, 17 journalists were involved in this article, including Izabella Evloeva – Maria Ponomarenko, Alexander Nevzorov, and Maryna Ovsyannikova filed three cases against her for this article.

Due to the introduction of an article about fakes, most independent mass media were forced to suspend their work or refuse to cover the war in Ukraine. Media employees left en masse for other countries in order to continue their work and avoid criminal prosecution.

In January 2023, the Russian authorities recognized one of the major independent Russian-language media, Meduza, as an undesirable organization. “In fact, after leaving Russia, the employees of this mass media took their place in the ranks of the most powerful anti-Russian propaganda,” Soloviev said, stressing that he was not surprised by the decision of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia.

The International Press Institute found about two hundred cases of Russian news websites being blocked for reporting on the war. According to the institute, 610 media rights violations have been recorded in Russia since the beginning of its armed invasion of Ukraine. Most of them are connected with censorship and arrests of correspondents.

The website of the Union of Journalists of Russia still states that the organization’s goals are to protect the rights and freedoms of journalists, promote freedom of mass information, support pluralism and independence of mass media.