Quotes of the Week

Week-ending 3 July 2026

‘As LGBTQ+ communities celebrate Pride this June, many journalists continue to face an ugly reality: simply reporting on this community can open them up to prosecution, physical attacks, threats, arrest, exile, and even death.’

– Committee to Protect Journalists

Source: ‘The high price journalists paid for LGBTQ+ reporting, and how to protect yourself now,’ CPJ, 26 June 2026

Background from CPJ: Around the world, some governments are using every tool in their arsenal to suppress reporting on LGBTQ+ news, including vague, widely applied legislation. In June 2013 in Russia, President Vladimir Putin passed legislation that legitimizes discrimination against LGBTQ+ persons and subsequently discourages news coverage. Several countries have passed similar laws, including Uganda in 2023 and Georgia in 2024; Turkey proposed its version of the law in 2025. At the state and federal level, the United States legislators passed dozens of anti-LGBTQ+ laws in 2026 and proposed hundreds more. Konstantin Iablotckii, a Russian LGBTQ+ rights defender who died in 2024, told CPJ in 2013 that laws like these mean that violence against the LGBTQ+ community is not being reported on because of fear that their journalism would be conflated with producing “gay propaganda.” The message journalists receive is clear: report on this community, and you could become a target.

‘Russia’s justice ministry has declared the vital Crimean Solidarity human rights movement a so-called “foreign agent,” together with eleven lawyers, civic activists and journalists involved in defending and / or reporting on victims of persecution. This is the latest, if most open, attack on a civic initiative that Russia has been trying to crush for the past 10 years, through intimidation, mass administrative arrests and horrifically long sentences against particular Crimean Solidarity civic journalists and activists Russia failed to silence Crimean Solidarity before and will hopefully not now, however the new restrictions are extremely onerous and, most worryingly, create new opportunities for the regime to persecute those it has labelled ‘foreign agents’ and those who cooperate with them.‘

– Human Rights in Ukraine [KHPG]

Source: ‘Russia labels Crimean Solidarity, lawyers & journalists ‘foreign agents’ in new attempt to crush Crimean Tatar human rights movement,’ Human Rights in Ukraine, 29 June 2026

Background from Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group: Russia’s persecution of Crimean Solidarity and its members has been because they told the truth and reported on repression in occupied Crimea. It is no accident that most of the first civic journalists and activists, who ensured that the world knew about armed searches, arrests and enforced disappearances in occupied Crimea were first themselves subjected to administrative arrests and penalties. When that failed to silence them, the FSB came for them, using profoundly flawed ‘terrorism’ charges. It is not quite clear what is meant by circulating the material of a foreign agent, but the scope is huge as Russia has used the label to try to crush very many human rights and media organizations and individuals. The list of eleven people specifically named by the ministry includes Lutfiye Zudiyeva, a renowned journalist and human rights defender, who was first labelled a ‘foreign agent’ on 16 May 2025 for her journalist work and the interviews she has given international media and NGOs. The claim about cooperation with “international terrorist organizations” is both sinister and false. On the one hand, the ministry is presumably trying to link Crimean Solidarity with the organization ‘Hizb ut-Tahrir’, which is legal in Ukraine but which Russia’s supreme court in 2003 declared ‘a terrorist organization’, It is that unwarranted claim and fictitious accusations of ‘involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir’ that has been used to sentence many Crimean Tatar journalists and activists to up to 20 years’ imprisonment. Here too, however, the scope is broad, with Russia trying to crush a large number of civic organizations by calling them ‘foreign agents’ and / or ‘terrorists’.

‘The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has found that Russia violated several articles of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination through its persecution of three Crimean Tatar lawyers.  The ruling, on 26 June 2026, is important for a number of reasons, despite the miniscule chance that Russia will comply with it.  The latter’s contempt for its own international commitments was only confirmed by the fact that the Committee’s ruling coincided with the Russian justice ministry’s further act of repression in labelling as ‘foreign agents’  Crimean Solidarity and several prominent Crimean Tatar lawyers, civic journalists and activists linked with this vital human rights movement.’

– Human Rights in Ukraine [KHPG]

Source: ‘UN Committee against Racial Discrimination slams Russia’s persecution of three Crimean Tatar lawyers,’ Human Rights in Ukraine, 1 July 2026

Background from the KHPG: The Committee combined three separate applications brought by three Crimean Tatar lawyers.  Although their names were not given in the ruling, all three cases of persecution in 2021 and 2022 were earlier reported here.  The first victim, identified in the report as Y, a prominent Crimean Tatar lawyer defending political prisoners and other victims of repression.  He arrived on 25 October 2021 to provide legal assistance to some of over 20 Crimean Tatars who had been detained outside the occupation ‘Crimean garrison military court’ where they had gathered in solidarity with three political prisoners – Rustem Emiruseinov, Arsen Abkhairov and Eskender Abdulganiev– whose appeal was being heard. Y was then detained and both fined and imprisoned for 12 days.  Later, on 26 May 2022, Y was again detained, this time for supposedly ‘discrediting the Russian armed forces’.  His colleague, Z was later that day detained when he arrived to represent Y.  He was imprisoned for eight days.  On 27 May, their colleague, X was detained when she came to represent Z who had been held for over 24 hours in custody (before the occupation ‘court’ ruling imprisoning him). She was imprisoned for five days. The three lawyers’ complaints were submitted to the Committee by Serhiy Zayets and the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre [EHRAC].   In their complaints, they asserted that Russia was in violation of the Convention as they had been subjected to different treatment on the grounds of their ethnicity and their association with other Crimean Tatars (as lawyers representing other Crimean Tatars). They complained that their prosecution was “part of an ongoing pattern of state harassment intended to repress and silence Crimean Tatar lawyers who defend other Crimean Tatars. The suppression by the State Party of Crimean Tatars as an ethnic minority, who has been opposed to the 2014 occupation, has been perpetrated in pursuit of the State Party’s policy to “Russify” Crimea and is inherently discriminatory.”

‘Oleg Roldugin is a journalist and Executive Director of Novaya Gazeta. He was also the last editor-in-chief of Sobesednik, a newspaper that ceased publication in 2024 after being designated a ‘foreign agent’ media outlet. On 9 April 2026, security officers searched Roldugin’s apartment, twisting his arms behind his back during the raid and seizing his computer equipment, mobile phone, and press credentials. Pro-government journalists were present and filmed the search. Afterwards, the authorities searched the offices of Novaya Gazeta. The search lasted 13 hours, and the newspaper’s journalists were ordered not to disclose details of the investigation. On 10 April, Roldugin was remanded in custody. On 2 June, the court replaced his detention with house arrest. In requesting a less restrictive measure, his lawyer pointed out that Roldugin supports his minor children, one of whom is seriously ill, as well as his elderly parents. Thousands of people use data lookup bots. Oleg Roldugin used them solely for investigative journalism, work that is clearly socially significant and serves the public interest. He has become the first investigative journalist to be prosecuted under this article and, apparently, the first person to be deprived of liberty pending trial on such charges. In our view, the authorities’ decision to prosecute Roldugin under the Criminal Code rather than the Code of Administrative Offences is unfounded and politically motivated, as is the decision to deprive him of his liberty during the investigation. This prosecution is retaliation for his professional work and is intended to intimidate society, particularly independent journalists.’

– Political Prisoners. Memorial

Source: ‘Oleg Roldugin is a political prisoner,’ Political Prisoners. Memorial, 2 June 2026

Background from Memorial: Roldugin was charged with the unlawful use of computer information containing personal data (Article 272.1, Part 3 of the Russian Criminal Code) for allegedly using online data lookup bots in the course of his investigative journalism. The prosecution claims that the offence was committed “by a group of persons,” which Roldugin denies. He faces up to six years’ imprisonment. The criminal provision under which Roldugin is charged was added to the Criminal Code in late 2024, ostensibly to combat fraud and the misuse of personal data. However, legal experts and even the Supreme Court criticised the new law from the outset for its vague and overly broad wording. Notably, similar conduct is also covered by an administrative offence, and whether a person faces criminal or administrative liability depends entirely on whether law enforcement decides that the alleged conduct poses a sufficient danger to society.