UNIAN’s sources say that this was not the work of local specialists, and that the armed men brought non-Ukrainian specialists and special equipment for receiving Russian TV channels

Simon Ostrovsky, the US Vice News correspondent held hostage by pro-Russian militants in Slovyansk, has been released. The whereabouts of Serhiy Lefter, Artem Deineha, Yevhen Halych and his brother are still unknown

Irma Krat and Serhiy Lefter are still being held by the armed militants in Slovyansk. Three foreign journalists, two Italian, and one Belarussian who were filming in the city had their papers, equipment and money taken away when seized on Monday morning, but they were later released

On April 14 “pro-Russian activists” in masks burst into the office of the Internet publication Gorlovka.ua and took its editor, Oleksandr Belinsky away. He was later returned and is unhurt.

A Lithuanian court has suspended transmission of the Russian TV channel NTV Mir [NTV World] for three months and there are plans to also remove the channels Rossiya and ORT [First Channel] over reporting on Ukraine and lies about the Vilnius events of 1991

Members of Crimea’s Ukrainian community are calling on Kyiv to support the newspaper Krymska Svitlytsa. They fear that the Ukrainian-language newspaper may cease publication now that the Crimea has been annexed by Russia.

The billionaire’s US lawyers have approached Espresso.tv’s provider, and not the channel itself, and demanded the withdrawal of an article which accuses Akhmetov of treason for not using his enormous power in Donetsk to stem the separatist disturbances

The website E-Crimea reports that the "State Council of the Crimea", as the self-proclaimed government is apparently calling itself, has announced its intention to close media which receive grants from other countries.

In Simferopol on Tuesday afternoon journalist Ibraim Umerov and a cameraman from the Crimean Tatar TV channel ATR were seized by armed men

On Monday night in Yalta special correspondent Dmitry Bunetsky and photographer Sergei Nikolaev from the newspaper Segodnya [Today] came under attack, with both receiving cuts and bruises and having teeth knocked out.

Journalists from the Crimean Tatar information section of the state-owned TV channel Krym have announced that they will not go on air until after the so-called referendum n Sunday

Crimea’s puppet prime minister Sergei Aksenov has effectively admitted that civic activists likely to oppose his pro-Russian line in the pseudo-referendum on Sunday are being held in custody

The State TV and Radio Broadcasting Committee has condemned the removal from Crimean broadcasting channels of virtually all Ukrainian national TV channels and unlawful transfer of the frequencies to Russian channels

One of the people stopped on Sunday on the border between the Kherson oblast and the Crimea and then abducted has told his wife that he was beaten and robbed by Crimean Berkut officers

The Turkish press agency Anadolu has reported that its correspondents were detained on March 9 by Russian soldiers after taking video footage of a column of 50 military vehicles near Kerch

Three young women – Ukrainsky Tyzhden journalist Olena Maksymentko and two activists – Kateryna Butko and Oleksandra Ryazantseva – were seized on Sunday trying to enter the Crimea from the Kherson oblast

According to Crimean journalist Zair Akadirov, almost all Ukrainian channels have either been replaced by Russian channels or simply removed from air

Ukrainian journalists are reported to have been brutally beaten during the seizure by Russian soldiers of a Ukrainian military unit on Friday evening, while in Simferopol STB journalists were attacked during a live news broadcast

If Russia is still maintaining an unconvincing pretence regarding its military intervention in the Crimea, the full-frontal offensive on media freedom is undisguised. Journalists and film crews have come under attack, and a number of media outlets have been taken off air

The private Chornomorska TV channel has been taken off air in a move forced on the broadcasting centre by the supposed new prime minister Sergei Aksenov or Russia which has effectively occupied the Crimea