The alleged imprisonment of a Russian journalist in a psychiatric hospital after writing an article critical of psychiatric services has prompted protests to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum are concerned that the punishment of Larisa Arap echoes human rights abuses from the Soviet era when psychiatric hospitals were used as prisons to isolate and punish political prisoners and discredit their ideas.

According to reports, Arap, a journalist and member of the opposition United Civil Front, had been forcibly hospitalised in Murmansk psychiatric hospital following the publication of an article on the use of violence by medical staff in the treatment of patients at the city¹s psychiatric clinics.