УДК 343.4:342.727]:07-051(477.75-074) Л84 Text author – Yuriy Lukanov. Editor and idea author – Tetiana Pechonchyk. Proofreader – Steve Doyle. Layout and design – Pavel Reznikov. Yuriy Lukanov Л84 The Press: How Russia Destroyed Media Freedom in Crimea / Yuriy Lukanov; Ed. by Tetiana Pechonchyk; Human Rights Information Centre. – Kyiv: KBC, 2018. – 176 p. ISBN 978-966-2403-19-0 This book discusses the curtailing of freedom of speech and persecution of journalists in Crimea after its occupation by the Russian Federation. This book contains documented evidence from more than two dozen journalists, editors, media owners and representatives of international organizations about beatings, damage and seizure of equipment, illegal detention, violent disappearance, tortures, threats, denial of accreditation, «blacklisting», institution of fabricated criminal cases, fines and other types of pressure and intimidation against journalists in Crimea. For four years since Russia invaded Crimea, none of these crimes have been investigated by the de facto “Crimean authorities” and the perpetrators have not been prosecuted. At the same time, Ukrainian authorities instituted a number of criminal cases based on the described circumstances. This book is designed for a wide range of readers, including representatives of the mass media, civil society, law enforcement agencies, academia and international organizations. УДК 343.4:342.727]:07-051(477.75-074) ISBN 978-966-2403-19-0 © Yuriy Lukanov, 2018 © Human Rights Information Centre, 2018 Human Rights Information Centre is a Ukrainian human rights organization, the purpose of which is to promote human rights, rule of law and values of civil society in Ukraine. In March 2014, together with Russian and Crimean human rights activists, the center members participated in the Crimean Field Mission for Human Rights (KFM), the only international human rights civil initiative, which worked in Crimea on a permanent basis. After the Federation Council included KFM in the so-called «patriotic stop list» in summer 2015, it was forced to stop working in Crimea because of the risk of criminal prosecution of its monitors. Since then, the Human Rights Information Centre has continued monitoring the situation regarding freedom of speech and expression in Crimea, cooperating with local activists, and supports Crimean journalists and human rights defenders. The organization is engaged in information-analytical work and advocacy of human rights topics in Crimea at the national and international arena. This publication was funded by the British Embassy in Ukraine as a part of a joint project of the Human Rights Information Centre and the Crimean Human Rights Group. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and may not coincide with the official position of the UK Government. Content Preface . 6 Introduction . 9 Mayhem Panorama . 15 OSCE, the UN and Obama Being Expelled from Crimea . 15 Bloody Fight in Sevastopol . 23 Russians Only . 31 Limited “referendum” . 34 Accused of spying . 40 The son was held responsible for his father . 45 Sevastopol detective . 52 Kerch ferry service takeover . 55 Injured journalist’s camera . 66 Deprived of the right to a profession . 69 Chornomorka was the first to shut down . 69 Working without equipment . 77 “Freedom” does not fit here . 86 Reporter-”extremist” Mykola Semena . 97 They will stay in prison for five years . 127 Retribution for “Krym” battalion . 127 Russian unwittingly . 137 Crimea is not for the Crimean Tatars . 147 ATR is not for sale . 147 Notice: entry denied . 164 The Last Word . 174 5 Preface Vladimir Putin’s Soviet-Style Repression of Media and Freedom of Speech in Occupied Crimea The annexation of Crimea in spring 2014 by Russia was not just only a blatant act of military aggression and violation of international law; it was far more . Yuriy Lukanov’s detailed book-length study is the first collated publication of memoirs and evidence of journalists about the Russian occupation authorities’ repressions against the media in Crimea . This book covers in breadth the abuse of human rights and freedom of speech in Crimea under Russian occupation which is succinctly in- tegrated with detailed case studies of fabricated repression and ex- treme violence against journalists . The annexation of Crimea led to the return to high levels of Soviet era repression of the Crimean Tatars, Ukrainians and Russians; in- deed, anybody remotely opposed to Russia’s illegal occupation . Heavy-handed repression of the media has gone hand in hand with discrimination against Crimean Tatars and Ukrainophobic chauvinism . Occupied Crimea has been flooded by a massive influx of FSB (Fed- eral Security Service) officers who eavesdrop, place under surveil- lance, undertake wonton destruction of property perpetrate savage acts of violence, detain under false accusations and hold mock trials and convict innocent journalists and civic activists . 6 Yuriy Lukanov | The Press: How Russia Destroyed Media Freedom in Crimea PREFACE President Vladimir Putin’s occupation regime is undertaking systematic repression in Crimea last seen in the dark days of the Soviet Union . This not only includes the closing down and corporate raiding of media out- lets but also the use of vigilante thugs (titushky) to severely beat jour- nalists and in some cases murder civil society activists . Peaceful pickets and protests have been and continue to be violently broken up and their participants savagely beaten, arrested and convicted on spurious Sovi- et-style charges . The book covers a wide range of areas that relate to the suppression of media freedom in Russian-occupied Crimea . These include the expulsion of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) from Crimea because Putin does not want them collecting information and reporting about the destruction of media freedom . Lukanov’s book also analyses how the Russian-occupation authorities have undertaken repressive steps to establish a Putin-friendly monopoly over the media in Crimea . Lukanov analyses how the FSB, Ministry of In- terior, Prosecutor-General’s office and Cossacks and extremist Russian nationalist vigilantes have corporate raided Ukrainian and Tatar media outlets, used physical violence against journalists and civic activists, put on trial members of their families and thrown out of work journalists who refuse to pay homage to Putin’s occupation of Crimea . This book talks about a new wave of political repression of Crimean Tatars that began after Russia’s occupation. Half of the Crimean Tatar people died during their ethnic cleansing from Crimea to Central Asia in 1944 on false charges of “collaboration with the Nazi’s ”. Crimean Tatars are banned from commemorating in May of each year their genocide in 1944 . They were only allowed to begin returning to Crimea in the late 1980s and 1990s and by 2014 accounted for 15% of the Crimean popula- tion . Since 2014 under Russian occupation, Crimean Tatar leaders have been expelled and imprisoned, their media outlets have been closed down, and the unofficial parliament Mejlis has been banned. Lukanov’s detailed study of the massive infringement of human rights and media freedom in Russian-occupied Crimea is an important docu- mentary evidence for journalists, academics, civic activists and policy makers . This important and ground-breaking study should be widely 7 PREFACE circulated to Western governments, media and experts . The world needs to know about Putin’s use of Soviet-style political repression in a terri- tory that he has illegally annexed . Dr. Taras Kuzio is a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations, Johns Hopkins-SAIS and the author of Putin’s War Against Ukraine and joint author of The Sources of Russia’s Great Power Politics: Ukraine and the Challenge to the European Order. In November 2010, he published The Crimea: Europe’s Next Flashpoint? which forecast Russia’s invasion and occupation four years later. 8 Yuriy Lukanov | The Press: How Russia Destroyed Media Freedom in Crimea Introduction On February 27, 2014 at four o’clock in the morning, armed men in unmarked uniform captured the premises of the Council of Ministers and the Verkhovna Rada of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea . With bitter irony, the journalists compared it with the attack of Nazi Ger- many on the Soviet Union . Then, on June 22, 1941, the war started at four o’clock in the morning, too . Just over a week before, on February 18-20, at the Independence Square in Kyiv, more than eighty people were shot . The funeral cere- mony was held in the same place, at Independence Square, accompa- nied by a sad melody of the song “Duck’s floating.” Hot discussions during the pro-Russian rally in Simferopol . Photo by Yuriy Lukanov 9 INTRODUCTION After this terrible crime, the pro-Russian President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia. His government fled together with him. The country was dominated by anarchy . The opposition supporting the Maidan, which came to power after its victory, did not have time to form a Cabinet of Ministers . This is when the government buildings in Simfer- opol were occupied . The next day after the capture, Simferopol was raging. People were walking down the streets with the Russian tricolor and shouting slo- gans urging Russia to come to the peninsula . The streets were are also full of organized groups of young men in sportswear or militarized uni- form with St . George’s ribbons on their chests . These ribbons were the symbols of the Russian Empire . They called themselves the “self-defense of Crimea ”. They held cam- paigns near Ukrainian military units and then started blocking and cap- turing them together with the Russian military men . As the subsequent events showed, most of the activists and organizers of these rallies were imported from Russia . In fact, these riots were or- ganized by Putin’s Russia, which has been developing the policy of an- nexing foreign territories for years .