Alerts | Arrest/detention under other laws

Police in Moscow detains two freelance journalists from RFE/RL

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On 14 November 2022, police in Moscow detained two freelance journalists working for RFE/RL, a media outlet which functions through funding by the US Congress. Yuri Lebedev and Yelizaveta Movchan were detained while interviewing passers-by on the street and were taken to a nearby police station. According to RFE/RL, police intervened after one of the people interviewed by the journalists made a denouncement.

Both Lebedev and Movchan were released on the same day in the evening and no charges were brought against them. According to the journalists’ lawyer, police attempted to confiscate a memory card and a camera from them, but eventually refrained from doing so when told these actions were illegal.

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