Kyiv-based prosecutor's office for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (ARC), together with human rights defenders, is preparing another report to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which will reflect the facts of the persecution of journalists on the territory of the temporarily occupied peninsula.

"Freedom of speech is absent in Crimea, and the activities of independent media have been stopped, which actually led to an 'information vacuum' on the peninsula," the press service of the prosecutor's office for the Crimean Autonomous Republic quoted its prosecutor Ihor Ponochovny as saying.

"The lack of independent media, tight control over information, censorship, manipulation and propaganda are the real situation with freedom of speech in the occupied peninsula. The active phase of the occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol was accompanied by pressure on the media that objectively covered the events on the peninsula. Only in 2014, more than 20 people from among journalists, bloggers, employees of Ukrainian and foreign media suffered serious violations of their rights," said the prosecutor for Crimea.