New York, November 26, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the detention of journalist Ediye Muslimova, in Simferopol, the capital of the Russian-occupied Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, and calls on the authorities to stop harassing Crimean journalists.
“Ediye Muslimova’s detention is deeply concerning in light of the continuous crackdown on journalists in Ukraine’s Crimea,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Russian authorities controlling Crimea must stop harassing Crimean journalists, who should be able to work safely and without fear of reprisal.”
On November 21, witnesses saw three men put Muslimova, the editor-in-chief of the Crimean Tatar language children’s magazine Armanchyk, into a van near her home, according to a local journalist who spoke under condition of anonymity with CPJ and Crimean Solidarity, a human rights group. Muslimova’s whereabouts were unknown for more than a day, with both her personal and work phones disconnected. Her relatives filed a statement with the police.
The following day, Muslimova posted on her Facebook page that she had been released after being detained for 36 hours by Russia’s special services,
“There were a lot of questions about my work, about the magazine,” Muslimova said in her post. Armanchyk, a monthly magazine published since 2011 in Crimea, publishes poems, crosswords, fairy tales, and other children’s content.
“Given that she was not engaged in anything criminal or illegal besides her work as an editor and journalist, […] I don’t think that her detention is linked to anything else other than her activities in the interest of the Crimean Tatar people,” a local journalist who spoke under condition of anonymity told CPJ.
Since Russia’s 2015 crackdown on independent media in Crimea, several Crimean Tatar journalists have been persecuted in connection with their reporting on the rights of the predominantly Muslim indigenous ethnic group.
CPJ called the Simferopol police for comment, but nobody answered the phone.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.