Kompas Safety RUEN

← All situations

Pressure on journalists

The guides below are drafts: a lawyer has not reviewed them yet. This is not legal advice.

Draft What human rights defenders advise

Pressure on a journalist
  • Main risks: working with 'undesirable' outlets (284.1 CC, up to 4 years), breaking the foreign-agent law (330.1 CC), army 'fakes' (207.3 CC), unlawfully obtaining state secrets (283.1 CC).
  • Warning signs: summons to 'preventive talks', mentions in pro-government channels, surveillance, repeated border checks. Human rights groups advise consulting a lawyer straight away.
  • Keep work and personal devices separate, don't keep conversations with sources in mainstream messengers, and send footage only once you're somewhere safe.
  • If you've been designated a foreign agent or summoned for questioning, see the notes on those situations.
  • Where to turn: Mass Media Defence Centre, First Department; if forced to leave: Reforum Help. Belarusian journalists: BAJ.

Designations of organisations in this guide: Reforum Help (undesirable). Contacting them carries a risk: do not write from a phone that may be seized, and do not repost their materials.

current as of 25 September 2026. More: First Department: guide for journalists in Russia (foreign agent); First Department: why a journalist needs a press card (foreign agent)

Whom to contact

3 organisations

First Department

Lawyers for treason, espionage, state secrets and extremism cases, including closed trials. Advice on digital security.

The only official bot is @deptonebot. It never asks for money or SMS codes.

Other ways to reach them: website · info@dept.one

abroad foreign agent contact matched to the organisation's site 26 September 2026
Message the bot @deptonebot

Reforum Help

Free psychologists and lawyers for forced emigrants: migration and visas, taxes, civil law, humanitarian residence; groups and seminars.

A Reforum project of the Free Russia Foundation, designated 'undesirable' in Russia. If you travel to Russia, contacting an 'undesirable' organisation or joining its events can lead to prosecution, so check with a lawyer.

online; Berlin, Vilnius, Warsaw, Paris, Tbilisi undesirable contact matched to the organisation's site 26 September 2026
Get in touch help.reforum.io

Related guides

What next

Need a lawyer

In Russia, First Department and Solidarity Zone find lawyers. Lawyers abroad known for defending political cases: list of lawyers →

Exit