Russian Journalists' Union Expelled From IFJ Over Operations in Occupied Ukraine

The Russian Union of Journalists (RUJ) has been permanently expelled from the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) following a formal vote at the organization’s 32nd Congress in Paris, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) reported on May 7.

The decision is the final stage of a process that began shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The RUJ’s membership was initially suspended in February 2023, largely due to its decision to establish illegal branches in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.

Jim Boumelha, former IFJ president and honorary treasurer, stated that the expulsion was a formal necessity after the RUJ failed to utilize the appeals process. Russian representatives did not attend the Congress and failed to submit a properly formatted appeal, instead sending a general letter that did not address the core charges. “The committee had no other choice,” Boumelha said.

International delegates widely supported the move. Ulrika Hyllert, President of the Swedish Union of Journalists, noted that the decision passed without debate, emphasizing that the IFJ cannot harbor organizations that operate as extensions of the state, NUJU wrote.

The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, which launched the campaign to expel the RUJ on February 28, 2022, called the decision “the only possible and long-awaited one.” Ukrainian representatives argued that the RUJ operates not as a media organization, but as a state apparatus that violates international law by expanding into sovereign Ukrainian territory.

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War in Ukraine

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“While we are rescuing journalists who are forced to flee the occupied territories and frontline zones, the Russian Union of Journalists is effectively an instrument of war and occupation,” NUJU head Sergiy Tomilenko stated.

According to NUJU data, the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine has taken a devastating toll on the media landscape, with at least 149 Ukrainian and foreign media workers killed, 28 journalists currently remaining in Russian captivity, and hundreds of media outlets being destroyed or forcibly taken over in occupied territories.

“Solidarity is possible only with those who respect human life, professional ethics, and freedom of speech,” the NUJU stated following the vote. “What is called journalism in Russia is an industry of hatred that serves the war.”

The reality faced by captured Ukrainian media workers was recently documented in new eyewitness accounts gathered by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Witnesses detailed the final days of Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna, who died in Russian custody in September 2024. During a 2,000-kilometer prison transfer to the Perm region, Roshchyna was reportedly severely emaciated, frequently losing consciousness, and refusing food in protest of the torture of Ukrainian prisoners.

Witnesses stated that prison staff ignored her deteriorating condition and administered an unknown injection the day before her death. Roshchyna was detained in August 2023 while reporting from Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine—the exact regions where the Russian Union of Journalists recently established its illegal branches.

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