On 02/27/2014, the Verkhovna Rada of the ARC gathered for an extraordinary session and voted in favor of holding the so-called referendum on the status of the autonomy. Notably, no journalists were admitted into the session hall.

On the day after, in the afternoon of 02/28/2014, armed men in military uniform without insignia blocked the building of the State TV and Radio Broadcasting Company Crimea (STRC Crimea), as well as the Radio and Television Broadcasting Center of the ARC.

Text broadcast from the scene was carried out by the journalists of the Argumenty Nedeli - Crimea news company.  

 Stepan Gulevaty, General Director of the STRC, informed the Center for Investigative Reporting in Simferopol that about 20 Russian military men "secured the perimeter" around the TV and radio company:

"They stand outside the gates of the STRC, they do not enter the territory. They say they have orders to secure the perimeter. Armed men in military uniforms without insignia, claiming they are from the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation."

By the building of the STRC Crimea, journalists recorded on video people in Russian military uniforms and employees of the state security service (police) who did not stop the invaders. The journalists were threatened, but the police did not react to this.

Since the beginning of the occupation and seizure of the media space, Russia would quickly enforce a regime of censorship and total control over information in Crimea. The ousting of independent and Ukrainian information media would be repeatedly recorded by international organizations and human rights activists. According to Freedom House, in the first year of the occupation, the number of media resources in Crimea would effectively decrease by more than 90%. The level of freedom of speech in Crimea in 2014 would become one of the worst in the world.

Starting from March 2014, Russian media would be using the Ukrainian television and radio frequencies in Crimea illegally. While promoting the pro-Russian content, the invaders would fill the air with hate speech, spread the aggressive Russian propaganda and influence the public opinion by applying outright psycholinguistic and other means of manipulation. The absence of the Ukrainian signal would exacerbate the situation and make it impossible to receive information from the Ukrainian media through television and radio.

The State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine would declare that cutting of the Ukrainian TV broadcasting channels in Crimea grossly violates the rights of Crimeans to information – a fundamental human right that is guaranteed by the Constitution of Ukraine, as well as by the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

Seizure of the Ukrainian television and radio frequencies on the territory of Ukraine and jamming of radio signal is contrary to Article 35 of the ITU Constitution and Convention. Such actions also violate a number of obligations of the OSCE member states.

Curtailment of freedom of speech would continue all over the occupied peninsula. Using so-called "countering of the extremist activity" clauses of the Russian law, the invaders would issue criminal indictments for the alleged "incitement of separatism", widely use administrative prosecution, arbitrary detentions, physical attacks, threats – the whole range of tools to eliminate the independent media and block the alternative sources of information.