On Wednesday 3 February, Moscow’s Tverskoy District Court sentenced Mediazona editor-in-chief Sergey Smirnov to 25 days administrative arrest for retweeting a reference to an anti-Kremlin protest. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) condemns this abusive and disproportionate sentence and supports the appeal filed by the journalist’s lawyer, Fyodor Shirosh, from the human rights organization Apologia Protesta. Police officers in Moscow arrested Smirnov outside his home on Saturday 30 January, while he was on a walk with his young son. Smirnov spent several hours in police custody before being allowed to return home to his family pending trial. Smirnov was accused of repeatedly…

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has banned three television channels from operating in Ukraine by revoking their broadcast licences and blocking assets after accusing them of being pro-Russian. The International and European Federation of Journalists (IFJ and EFJ) condemned what they called “an extra-judicial and politically motivated ban and a blatant attack on press freedom that must be urgently reversed”. TV broadcasters ZIK, NewsOne and 112 Ukraine have been forced off the air for a period of five years following a decision by Zelensky that critics said stifles freedom of speech. The three broadcasters employ around 1,500 people, whose jobs are…