Photo: Darya Shipacheva (Credit: Memorial, memopzk.org)

The European Federation of Science Journalists (EFSJ) stands in solidarity with Darya Shipacheva, the Russian science and health journalist who was sentenced to 12 years in prison on dubious treason charges after an expedited process with zero transparency.

Shipacheva is an experienced science and health reporter with bylines in major Russian media outlets. She is a book author and podcaster who used her lived experience with chronic pain to inform her audiences on a topic that otherwise gets very little attention.

According to media reports, Shipacheva, who was born in Ukraine, may have been accused of treason after a money transfer to relatives there. She was arrested shortly before graduating from her Master’s program in 2025 and spent about a year in detention before a closed-door court hearing on July 27 that lasted a total of 1.5 hours.

Treason charges in Russia are notoriously impossible to beat in court and widely thought to be an instrument of political persecution, fueled by perverse incentives for the state security services. Several dozen Russian scientists and journalists have also been accused of treason in the last decades, and overall new treason cases have skyrocketed after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Government has stepped up its relentless attack on the independent media and civil society. As a result, the Russian Association for Science Journalism (AKSON), a founding member of the EFSJ in 2019, was forced to disband following pressure from the Russian Government.

Darya Shipacheva, as well as other journalists imprisoned in Russia, should be free to do their job.

The Association of British Science Writers joins the EFSJ in condemning Darya Shipacheva's imprisonment and calls for her immediate release – journalism is not treason.