Currently, twelve journalists are in prison in occupied Crimea.

Chairperson of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, Serhiy Tomilenko, announced this during the opening of the photo exhibition.

According to him, it is important to confirm their journalistic status abroad, as the occupiers are trying to label journalists as terrorists.

"Twelve journalists are imprisoned in Crimea, according to human rights activists.Ten of them are Crimean citizen journalists, one of our colleagues is under house arrest - Amet Suleymanov. We are talking about Oleksiy Bessarabov and Stanislav Yesypenko, who are being held in prison. And we confirm their journalistic status", - Serhiy Tomilenko said.

The Union of Journalists demands the immediate release of all illegally detained colleagues.

"Independent professional journalism is going through difficult times. Journalists are becoming enemies of the state. Since 2014, when Crimea became a temporarily occupied territory, the development of citizen journalism has begun - a unique and living phenomenon", - Tomilenko said.

In February 2017, searches were carried out in Simferopol, and ten activists, who broadcast live on social networks about how the state unlawfully treats its population, were detained. At the same time, the occupants detained five journalists. After they had served their time of administrative detention, hundreds of Crimean Tatars greeted them as heroes.

Human rights activist and wife of imprisoned civil journalist Seyran Saliev, Mumine Salieva, noted that the job of citizen journalists is to separate facts from lies.

Salieva gave the example of one of her international colleagues about why journalism is so important for our time.

“I became a journalist because I wanted to get as close as possible to the heart of the world. It is difficult to say whether I can do this, but continuing their activities in Crimea, they have come close to the very heart of the identity of our people. Standing on the side of the truth is an antidote against tyranny and racism”, - the journalist emphasized.

The Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Anton Korynevych said that the situation with freedom of speech in the temporarily occupied territory is more critical than ever.

"Good must win. Today we have a situation where freedom of speech in temporarily occupied Crimea is simply impossible, as Russia has done everything to ensure that journalistic professional activity is suspended on the peninsula. Everything that is broadcast is false information. Citizen journalists have an important role to play in bringing information to society. People may not have professional skills and abilities, but they did important work to show the real Crimea under Russian rule", - Korynevych said.

He added that all our citizens illegally imprisoned on the territory of Crimea will definitely be released, and they will be with their families.

On December 16, 2021, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved Bill No. 6104, which provides for the social and legal protection of persons deprived of their liberty as a result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation and their family members.

“We hope that at the beginning of 2022, this law will work. We must do everything possible to help our compatriots. This will be an adequate response of the state to the current situation”, - Korynevych emphasized.