OBSTRUCTING JOURNALISTS’ WORK

the so called “special military operation in Ukraine”, the Journalists’ and Media Workers’ Union documented 111 violations of journalists’ rights, the majority of which were arrests while covering peaceful anti-war protests.242

Such violations can be roughly divided into three groups: obstructing journalists’ work; arbitrary arrests and detentions; and unlawful use of force.

According to the Law “On Mass Media”, journalists performing their professional duties must “produce at the first demand their journalist ID or 243 another document that confirms their identity and authority as a journalist.”244 The Law “On public assemblies” establishes the same requirement for a journalist covering a public assembly.245 However, contrary to the law, it has become a widespread practice that in addition to their ID the police demand that journalists also produce an editorial assignment letter – a document issued by a media outlet to confirm that a journalist has been assigned a specific task which they should carry out on a specific day. It should contain the media registration number (or, for foreign media, their name and the country of registration) and should be signed by the editor-in-chief or one of the editors and have an official stamp of the media outlet.246 Other documents that journalists have reported that the police have demanded them to produce include passports, documents confirming that their media has been registered by Roskomnadzor and even papers confirming the legal possession of a camera.247 It is not uncommon for journalists who fail to produce such excessive documents to be prevented from working at a public assembly248 or even to be detained, at least until their colleagues can confirm that they had attended a public assembly as part of their job. Speaking to Amnesty International in July 2022, one journalist remarked: “The law “On Mass Media” says that we have the right to collect information. But the police like to interpret the law as they want. We are not obliged to wear yellow vests, we do not have to wear badges. It is enough to have just a press card.”

Another common practice used by the police is to physically prevent journalists from approaching a certain area where a public action is about to or is taking place, or where police are detaining people participating in a demonstration. This is carried out either through installing barriers,249 positioning cordons of police officers to block journalists from approaching, or actively pushing them away, including with varying degrees of force.

For instance, journalists covering an anti-war protest in Moscow on 6 March 2022, reported how the police pushed them to one side of the police cordon before the start of the protest and were not allowed to access the square where the protest was expected to take place. The police also threatened that those who refused to go would be “taken away”, in reference to a police station.250 When some journalists asked on what grounds the press must follow these orders, pointing out that they had the right to be there by law, the police failed to respond.251 In Yekaterinburg, the Urals, journalists of the online media It’s My City reported several incidents when police obstructed journalists’ work during an anti-war protest on 4 March 2022. In one such incident, the police told a journalist who was filming a detained protester screaming in a police van, “to move away” and “not to obstruct police work”, although the video recording clearly shows that the journalist was far enough from the police to avoid obstructing them.252In another incident that was videorecorded, a policeman is heard saying “Hold the greens away!”.253 The “greens” in that instance was a term used by the police

242 https://profjur.org/111-narushenij-prav-zhurnalistov-s-nachala-specoperacii/ 243 Emphasis by AI 244 http://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_1511/cb538501fcf1adfcebe98ad1431bca6e50d08cc6/ 245 http://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_48103/ef9be220760ca6486116744bc7dde3ce562e0301/ 246 https://mmdc.ru/services/common/pravila-dlya-zhurnalistov-na-akcziyah-protesta-stali-gorazdo-zhestche-chto-vazhno-znat-instrukcziyadlya-vseh-nashih-kolleg/ 247 https://ruj.ru/news/tsentr-pravovoi-zashchity-zhurnalistov-szhr-po-povodu-zaderzhanii-predstavitelei-smi-23-31-yanvarya-i-2-fevralya14443 248 See, for instance, one of the examples from February 2021 protest in Moscow here: https://mskgazeta.ru/obshchestvo/zhurnalistyrasskazali-o-narusheniyah-ih-prav-i-zaderzhaniyah-vo-vremya-raboty-na-akciyah-protesta-6975.html 249 See, for instance, one of the examples from February 2021 protest in Moscow here: https://mskgazeta.ru/obshchestvo/zhurnalistysoobshayut-o-perekrytii-lubyanskoj-ploshadi-v-moskve-v-svyazi-s-nesankcionirovannymi-akciyami--6963.html 250 https://t.me/avtozaklive/12806 251 https://t.me/activatica/16595 252 https://t.me/itsmycity/19018 253 https://t.me/itsmycity/19019

RUSSIA: “YOU WILL BE ARRESTED ANYWAY”:

REPRISALS AGAINST MONITORS AND MEDIA WORKERS REPORTING FROM PROTESTS