Mykola Mykhailovych Semena ( uk, Микола Михайлович Семена; born 14 May 1950) is a

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

journalist who worked for

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...

(RFE/RL) in the mid-2010s. In 2016 he was arrested by the Russian authorities in

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

and was tried in the following year. He was found guilty of

separatism Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seeking greate ...

, and was barred from working as a journalist. The court sentence was criticized by several Western governments and

nongovernmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

s ("NGOs").

Career

Semena worked for

in the mid-2010s. In April 2016 he was arrested by Russian authorities in

, and was charged with acting "against the territorial integrity of the

Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

." The charge was based on Article 280.1 of the

Russian Criminal Code The Russian Criminal Code (russian: Уголовный кодекс Российской Федерации, frequently abbreviated УК РФ) is the prime source of the Law of the Russian Federation concerning criminal offences. The 1996 Crim ...

, which had been adopted shortly after Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea. Article 280.1 criminalized the questioning of Russia's sovereignty over Crimea as Russian territory. In September 2017, he was found guilty of "

" and was given a

suspended sentence A suspended sentence is a sentence on conviction for a criminal offence, the serving of which the court orders to be deferred in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation. If the defendant does not break the law during that ...

of two and a half years. He was barred for three years from "public activities", including journalism, and was forbidden to leave Russia. His sentence was criticized as "politically motivated" by a number of Western governments and by over two dozens NGOs, many affiliated with the

Helsinki Committee for Human Rights The Helsinki Committees for Human Rights exist in many European countries (the OSCE region) as volunteer, non-profit organizations devoted to human rights and presumably named after the Helsinki Accords. Formerly organized into the International ...

. The

Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization with observer status at the United Nations. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, prom ...

declared that "The case of Semena reminds us all of the arbitrary practice of silencing critical voices in Crimea." RFE/RL described the verdict as "part of an orchestrated effort by Russian authorities in Crimea to silence independent voices." The

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

called Semena's sentencing "a clear violation of the freedom of expression and of the media" and demanded his immediate release, along with that of several other journalists it deemed to have been unjustly imprisoned by Russia. Semena himself called the sentence that had been imposed on him "a sentence against journalism in Russia." Shortly after his 2016 arrest, Semena had received the inaugurative

Eastern Partnership The Eastern Partnership (EaP) is a joint initiative of the European External Action Service of the European Union (EU) together with the EU, its member states, and six Eastern European partners governing the EU's relationship with the post-Sovi ...

Pavel Sheremet Award "in recognition of the fact that he was not afraid to risk his freedom and security, defending free speech in Crimea." He was not allowed to leave Russia to accept the award in person. In February 2019, the Ukrainian Ministry of Information Policy and Ministry of Foreign Affairs nominated Semena and another Ukrainian journalist,

Roman Sushchenko Roman Volodymyrovych Sushchenko (, born 8 February 1969) is a Ukrainian journalist and artist. He was arrested in Russia on spying charges in 2016 and sentenced in 2018; his detention and sentence have been criticized by a number of Ukrainian and ...

—who had likewise been arrested and sentenced by Russia, in the Ukrainian government's view illegally—for the

UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize The UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, created in 1997, honours a person, organization or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defence and/or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, especially whe ...

. In 2019 Semena published a book, ''The Crimean Report'', about Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Semena, Mykola 1950 births Living people Ukrainian journalists Ukrainian victims of human rights abuses Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty people