Human rights activists collected punctuation marks – Newspaper Kommersant No. 218 (7419) dated 11/24/2022

The international human rights organization Amnesty International assessed the risks of Russian journalists and human rights activists covering the protests. In the report “You Will Be Detained Anyway,” the researchers spoke about the violations of 2021 and 2022 and came to the conclusion that it is necessary to change Russian “rally” laws. The head of the Union of Journalists of the Russian Federation (UJR), Vladimir Solovyov, believes that Amnesty International “does not notice the beam in its own eye” and should focus on the problems of “the countries of the Big West.” He added that the President of Russia will be informed about the problems of military correspondents.

The authors of the report “You Will Be Detained Anyway” point out that the relevant law on rallies does not contain the term “observer”. They mean a specialist who is at the site of a public event, but does not participate in it, but fixes possible violations – usually these are journalists, sociologists and human rights activists. So, in the winter of 2021, several observers from the “Committee Against Torture” (renamed the “Team Against Torture” after being recognized as a foreign agent and liquidated) were detained at uncoordinated actions in support of politician Alexei Navalny. According to the trade union of journalists and media workers (liquidated by court decision in September 2022), at least 16 journalists were detained at the same time. Later, many were fined or placed under administrative arrest.

“We see that the Russian authorities not only stubbornly prevent any protests and severely punish the slightest attempts to hold them, they also strive to ensure that as little information about them as possible gets into the public field,” said Amnesty researcher Natalya Prilutskaya. By depriving the public of information about the protests and obstructing their monitoring, the Kremlin is trying to root out any public manifestations of discontent.” Amnesty goes on to talk about the application of new laws adopted after the entry of Russian troops into Ukraine. Recall that according to the Network Freedoms project, more than 4,000 people have been brought to administrative responsibility for “discrediting” the army. And according to the OVD-Info project (included in the register of foreign agents), at least 80 people are involved in criminal cases on the “dissemination of false information” about the armed forces, including politicians and journalists. These norms have actually suppressed the right of citizens to protest against the actions of the government, human rights activists say.

Amnesty recommends that the Russian government “comply with international human rights obligations”; change the Law on Rallies to ensure the “right to freedom of assembly”; consolidate the concept of “observer” in it and develop recommendations for the Ministry of Internal Affairs on working with journalists at protests. Here, the authors ask “to refrain from harassment, intimidation, threats” of journalists, “not to ask” them for additional documents or decals and items of clothing (when working at rallies) and “to refrain from confiscating mobile phones and cameras.” Amnesty also demands the “immediate release” of all arrested observers and journalists and the “cancellation” of the new provisions of the Criminal Code and the Code of Administrative Offenses.

Human rights activists “should pay attention to the countries of the Big West, where there is practically no freedom of speech,” said Vladimir Solovyov, head of the Union of Journalists of Russia. In his opinion, the media in these countries work “like the politburo of the late Brezhnev years”, so that Amnesty “does not notice the beam in its own eye.” However, Vladimir Solovyov confirmed that at the rallies in 2021, the UJR recorded “dozens” of illegal detentions of journalists and even “blows with batons.” However, after that, the union “carried out serious work in every federal district of the country with government officials.” As a result, “the project of a single vest and identity card” of a media worker appeared, and the number of violations “dramatically decreased”.

He added that the UJR continues to collect information about violations of the rights of journalists: “Including thanks to the data that we receive from the regional branches of the union, we now have 89 of them.” According to him, most of the violations are related to denials of participation in press conferences and denials of information. Some regional officials “have to be reminded that censorship in our country is prohibited by the Constitution,” Mr. Solovyov admitted in an interview with Kommersant, but the violations “cannot be called massive.” The head of the UJR assured that at the upcoming annual meeting of the Human Rights Council and President Putin, the problems of journalists “will definitely be heard.” Mr. Solovyov refused to disclose the details, but noted that the discussion would include “military commanders.”

Maria Starikova