29 May 2020
The human rights organisations Moscow PEN Centre and Free Word [Svobodnoe Slovo] that bring together writers and journalists have issued a statement on the detention of journalists in Moscow.
Source: Novye Izvestiya
The statement by the human rights defenders says:
We are outraged by the 15-day jail sentence handed down under administrative law to journalist and municipal councillor Ilya Azar for holding a single-person picket and by the detention of the journalists Sergei Smirnov, Tatyana Felgengauer, Aleksandr Pliushchev, Viktoriya Ivleva, Anastasiya Lotareva and Alisa Ganieva, who all held single-person pickets outside the headquarters of the Moscow police department in Azar’s support.
Single-person pickets do not require permission from the authorities. And the self-isolation regime cannot be grounds for trampling the right to freedom of expression guaranteed under the Constitution.
We demand the immediate release of all those detained!
Translated by Simon Cosgrove
