Quotes of the Week

Week-ending 1 August 2025

“I’m here talking to you, only because of the advocacy that RSF and other press freedom organizations, built up and continued […] Every time we speak about press freedom, it’s about people who lost years and years of their lives behind bars for speaking the truth, for working.

– Alsu Kurmasheva, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist (pictured – photo courtesy RSF)

Source: ‘“Any journalist detained in any country is a wrongfully detained person”: Alsu Kurmasheva speaks out one year after her release,’ RSF, 1 August 2025

“Alsu’s freedom is proof that advocating for jailed journalists matters. That’s why we can never give up on the nearly 600 journalists around the world who are currently behind bars. Unfortunately, since Alsu was freed last year, Vladimir Putin has only tightened his grip on the Russian media and come down harder on Russian and Ukrainian journalists. RSF will continue to fight for the release of all imprisoned journalists and media workers.

– Clayton Weimers, Executive Director, RSF USA

Source: ‘“Any journalist detained in any country is a wrongfully detained person”: Alsu Kurmasheva speaks out one year after her release,’ RSF, 1 August 2025

Background from RSF: August 1 marks one year since Alsu Kurmasheva was released from a Russian prison. The Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) journalist told Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in an exclusive video interview about life after her unjust detention and how she now fights for the freedom of other imprisoned reporters. 

“For years, Russian authorities have been meticulously expanding their legal and technological tools to carve out Russia’s section of the internet into a tightly controlled and isolated forum. Their efforts have led to pervasive censorship, large-scale internet disruptions, and weakened security and privacy, in violation of their human rights responsibilities under international law. […] Russian authorities have built a comprehensive arsenal of policies and technological means to extend internet censorship and control, which are largely not visible to an average use. These seemingly invisible steps have devastating implications for access to information, privacy, and freedom of expression of every internet user in Russia. 

– Anastasiia Kruope, assistant Europe and Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch (pictured above, photo courtesy of HRW).

Source: ‘Russia: Internet Blocking, Disruptions and Increasing Isolation. Censorship, Control of Internet Architecture Leads to Rights Violations,’ Human Rights Watch, 30 July 2025

Background from Human Rights Watch: Russian authorities have doubled down on censorship online, internet disruptions, and surveillance since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 50-page report, “Disrupted, Throttled, and Blocked: State Censorship, Control, and Increasing Isolation of Internet Users in Russia,” documents the impact of the government’s increasing technological capacities and control over the country’s internet infrastructure. Human Rights Watch found that this allows the authorities to carry out more widespread and nontransparent blocking and throttling of unwanted websites and censorship circumvention tools, as well as internet disruptions and shutdowns under the pretext of ensuring public safety and national security.