This year, the Secretariat of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) has awarded freelance journalist of Radio Liberty (the Krym.Realii project [Crimea Realia]) Vladyslav Yesypenko, who was sentenced to 5 years in prison in Crimea for keeping an “improvised explosive device” in his car, with Ihor Lubchenko National Prize for the Protection of Freedom of Speech.
“For a year and a half, Vladyslav was illegally kept in Russian prisons. At the same time, he was detained without any reason, brutally tortured, forced to make a fake “confession” for television and subjected to a fictitious trial. But even in captivity, the journalist did not resign and continued his work, writing articles for the Krym.Realii project. Presenting Vladyslav Yesypenko with the award named after the long-time head of the Union of Journalists Ihor Lubchenko is recognition of his contribution to the protection of freedom of speech, to the fight for democracy and free media,” noted Sergiy Tomilenko, the President of the NUJU.
The awarding of the National Prize for Freedom of Speech is also supported by the laureates of this award of the previous years – famous journalists who were persecuted by the Russian regime, Mykola Semena and Roman Sushchenko.
“Vladislav Yesypenko is one of those journalists who, as Radio Liberty President Jamie Fly said, risked their own freedom in order to guarantee freedom of speech for Crimeans. Vladyslav did a very big thing: when all professional journalists were forced out of Crimea, when all independent TV channels were closed there, and Ukrainian journalists were banned from entering Crimea, he dared to come to Crimea and make truthful reports from there. This allowed, at least to some extent, to ensure freedom of speech in the occupied peninsula,” noted well-known Crimean journalist / NUJU Secretary Mykola Semena, in a comment to the NUJU press service.
According to Mykola Semena, Vladyslav Yesypenko was initially charged with espionage for Ukraine, but it was impossible to prove it even though the case was in hands of the Crimean occupation “court”. Then he was accused of keeping an explosive device in his car, which, as it turned out during the court session, did not even fit the niche in the car where it was allegedly kept…
Ukrainian journalist and politician Roman Sushchenko, a former prisoner of the Kremlin and a laureate of the 2018 Ihor Lubchenko National Prize for the Protection of Freedom of Speech, is convinced that journalists such as Vladyslav Yesypenko perform a special mission in the occupied territories.
“Through their work, together with professional journalists, they provide the information needs of communities and society, strengthen the word of freedom and ensure the formation of the general picture of the situation that has developed and is developing since the moment of the annexation, occupation and full-scale invasion of the sovereign territories of Ukraine. After the annexation of Crimea, free journalism on the Ukrainian peninsula was put on the brink of extermination, and here the appearance of civil journalists filled the vacuum of truthful information. Without professional training, these people actually ensured the process of collecting, analyzing and disseminating information on a public basis. Independence, reliability, variety of relevant information told and written by civil journalists ensured relative freedom of speech in the occupied territories before the beginning of total and large-scale repression. Vlad is one of these volunteer heroes,” said Roman Sushchenko commenting on the NUJU prize awarding to Vladyslav Yesypenko.
Vladyslav Yesypenko was born in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk Region, on March 13, 1969. In early 2013, he together with his wife moved to Sevastopol. Although Vladyslav’s main field of activity is real estate, after the occupation of the Crimean Peninsula he started working as a blogger, and also started cooperating with the Krym.Realii project: he filmed simulcasts on social topics and public opinion polls. In 2015, after the birth of their daughter, the family moved to Kryvyi Rih, but Vladyslav continued to visit Crimea, working for the Krym.Realii project.
On March 10, 2021, the Russia’s Federal Security Service detained Yesypenko on suspicion of working for the special services of Ukraine and storing an explosive device in a car. After being granted access to independent lawyers, the journalist claimed to have given his testimony under torture, including electric shock, and death threats. On February 16, 2022, the “Simferopol District Court” sentenced the journalist to six years in a general regime colony and a fine of RUB 110,000. In August 2022, an “appeal court” in the city of Simferopol reduced the prison term from six to five years.
The National Award for the Protection of Freedom of Speech named after Ihor Lubchenko, who headed the NUJU from 1997 to 2012, is awarded every year on November 3, the birthday of Ihor Fedorovych. In previous years, the laureates of the prize were journalists Volodymyr Mostovyi, Oleksandr Bryzh, Nataliya Lihachova, Mykola Semena, Roman Sushchenko, Valerii Makeiev, Stanislav Asieiev, Crimean Tatar civil journalists, vice-president of the Polish Association of Journalists Agnieszka Romaszewska, and the Belarusian Association of Journalists.
