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=Media in Crimea= Starting in 2014, Crimea's media has been controlled by the government and laws they put in place. Crimea's lack of free press has caused journalists and media outlets to be censored when reporting on important topics. This has caused issues for the country.

Introduction on Crimea
Crimea is a region located in Eastern Europe and is described as a peninsula in the republic of Ukraine. . During this time Crimea was faced with several invasions until the end of the medieval time period. Crimea was then settled by the Scythe-Cimmerians after the medieval period ended. Crimea is located in the south region of Ukraine near the Black Sea. Crimea is known as an autonomous republic, meaning a self-governed country or region to an extent. Crimea is also referred to as “the breadbasket of Russia”, because of its large production of grain, and its fifty percent population being dedicated to producing food.

Often people will ask “Is Crimea a part of Russia?” and the official answer to that is no, but one point it was. Early Crimea history after the medieval period began with Russia. In 1783 the Russian army defeated the Ottoman navy in the Russo-Turkish War, in return they received Crimea as a part of the Russian Empire. In the year 1921 the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created but was resolved in 1945. In 1991 Crimea was transferred to Ukraine.

After the annexation of Crimea, it was hard to difference how people of Crimea identified themselves. Though Russian is the most common native language of Crimea, citizens of Crimea identify themselves in five different categories. The categories consist of Discriminated Russians, Ethnic Russians, Crimean’s, Political Ukrainians or Ethnic Ukrainians. It should also be noted that even though some people of Crimea identify themselves as either discriminated Russian or Ethnic Russians they don’t want to join Russia again.

Legal Actions
Crimea has absorbed the ridged Russian media model. The first large legal change since the Russian annexation concerned media outlets who were anti-Russia before the annexation. Russia signed in a law requiring media outlets to show how they get funding. If it is foreign, the show must label the information as part of a “foreign agents”. This new law creates even more of a tense situation regarding Crimea’s rough international relationships. Crimea often doesn’t allow many foreign representatives in the country but, want to remain on the world stage. The country created the “Friends of Crimea” for countries to send representatives to Crimea. The over 30 countries met for the first time, under the Friends of Crimea name in November 2017. The group will meet again during the fourth annual Yalta International Economic Forum (YIEF) discussing “Russia as a whole” stated by Crimea’s Minister for Economics.

The journalist had to adjust to the change in freedom between Crimean and Russian media laws. If a journalist makes a statement about anti-Russian sentiments the journalist can face up to 5 years in prison. The definition of journalist in Russia is an combines traditional media outlets as well as bloggers with over 3,000 daily visits to their blog. Russia also has a law dictating that anyone with over 3,000 followers online must follow restrictions that apply to larger businesses.

The Government
Crimea is predominantly a Russian country, most people there identify themselves as ethnically Russian and speak Russian. However, since the fall of the Soviet Union, Crimea has been an official part of the Ukraine. The Ukrainian constitution gave Crimea the status of “autonomous republic” so long as legislation agreed with that of the Ukraine.

Pro-Russian, Viktor Yanukovych, became president of the Ukraine in 2010, but fled the country in 2014. Not long after, the Crimean government was seized by Russian troops. The country was annexed by Russia later that year through a referendum during Russian occupation. This annexation is not recognized by the United States or the European Union. Crimea’s now pro-Russian parliament is led by Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov.

Crimea’s pro-Russian government is quick to silence dissenting opinions and do not allow citizens to access pro-Ukraine or pro-Independence news outlets. Censorship is widely practiced and Internet access is restricted by the Russian government. While violence against journalists has decreased since 2016, Crimea is a largely hostile environment for bloggers or journalists. Those news outlets that are allowed to operate do so under the authority of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The Media
Since 2014, Russian media laws have controlled the work of the Crimean press. There were aggressive efforts brought on by Russian authorities to establish control over the media landscape in Crimea. With the media laws Russia put into place, to be able to report information, they first had to register with Russian authorities. “Hundreds of media outlets were unable to obtain registration with Russian authorities by an April 2015 deadline, reducing the number allowed to operate in Crimea from more than 3,000 to just 232”. This tactic was just the beginning to prevent free media in Crimea.

The European Union (EU)created policy measures regarding independent media outlets. “Available in Crimea via satellite, radio, and the Internet should be supported in order to mitigate the negative consequences of the restrictions on the media and to ensure the cultural and linguistic rights of the minorities and indigenous people”. These independent outlets were forced to relocate to the mainland Ukraine after begin denied registration and facing various forms of pressure from the authorities.

Crimea has been organizing ways to assemble freedoms for the media and the right to access information. During this time, Crimea has also tried to allow other freedoms such as the right to a fair trial and the right to education in one’s native language. The available sources of information for journalists were scarce after the annexation. Finding sources were hard and will continue to be as long as there are violations of freedom of expression.

The News
Russia issued major laws/policies to control the press in Crimea. The most prominent of those was the de facto law, which states that all media outlets were held to a limit. The de facto laws aimed towards silencing non-biased opinions. Russia was determined to limit what Crimea citizen’s could be exposed to.

Besides tightening press freedom using new regulations, Russia also launched a scheme to discredit media outlets that opposed/criticized the new government. The de facto, which is a set of laws that, “has shut down the broadcasting of Ukrainian television stations in Crimea and were made to aim against independent journalists and local television and radio stations airing dissenting voices”. The television and radio stations belonged to Ukrainian politicians and the Centre of Independent Journalists and other media sources were targeted both by the ‘self-defense’ and the de facto authorities, they attacked journalists. A couple of those politicians were, former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk and Interior Minister Arsen Avakov.

Journalists became targeted in the Crimea area when the Russian reign took over. People who exposed themselves as journalists were treated harsh by authorities. “A number of journalists have been threatened, assaulted, physically attacked and several members of the media have been severely injured while covering the events in Crimea”.

Civic journalists specifically, “have been observing the development of a deliberate practice targeting civic journalists, aimed at stopping their activity, involving searches of their houses, detentions, interrogations, administrative arrests and confiscation of electronic devices”. A few of those journalists were, Argumenti nedeli-Krym Associated Press Television News, BBC, CNN, Inter channel and numerous freelancers like, Boryana Katsarova and Dimiter Kenarov. Recently in December of last year, Ukraine was given permission to broadcast to Crimea from their media outlets. In 2018, consistent radio broadcasts will be on the air for the first time in three years.

Mr. Khorkin said Radio Ukraine has been broadcasting in Russian to get its message across to the mainly Russian-speaking Crimea for the last three years, but now wants to recruit those, "presenters and announcers with a good knowledge of Tatar, as the language needs to be protected and encouraged”. However, only Russian speaking radio and television will be broadcasted to Crimea to still have a defense on their territory and shared information.