In four months War between Russia and Ukraine It cost the lives of ten media professionals, representing almost a quarter of all journalist and support personnel deaths in the world in the first half of 2022, according to a UNESCO survey with 41 casualties in the first six months of 2022. this year.
Unesco’s rate – 25% – is the same in Reporters Without Borders’ calculation, but the total number of victims is different, because the French NGO does not include two Ukrainian journalists who died in the war and were not in the service of a security agency. Press.
According to RSF, 32 media workers lost their lives in 2022, including eight in Ukraine, in news or attacks related to their jobs.
Journalists killed in war became victims of direct attacks
It is not uncommon for journalists to die in wars, and conflicts are part of its history. What changed in the Ukrainian war was that in most cases professionals were attacked by Russian forces, defined as the press, rather than being injured by gunfire or accidental bombings.
Some were even captured and tortured. Such was the case of Maks Levin, a Ukrainian photographer working for the Reuters agency.
An independent investigation by Reporters Without Borders concluded that he and his companion, a former military professional, were killed in cold blood after he disappeared on March 13 in Moshchun, a village 20km north of Kiev.
Also Read | Ukrainian photographer working for Reuters executed by Russia
Others were shot while traveling in certain news carts, which in the past meant protection. At the very beginning of the conflict, Fox News team car hacked Traveling to the city of Irpin, 20 km from Kiev, on March 14.
In the incident, 55-year-old cameraman Pierre Zakrzevsky and 24-year-old Ukrainian producer Oleksandra Kuvshinova died.
HE Reporter Benjamin Hall survived the attack but was seriously injured. He spoke for the first time a month after the attack:
“To sum up, I lost half my leg on one side and one foot on the other,” the journalist wrote on Twitter, posting a photo of him wearing a bandage and eye patch. He also injured his hand, went blind in one eye, and lost some of his hearing.
The news of the attack on Fox News employees comes just one day after another US journalist, Brent Renaud, was shot dead in Ukraine, again on his way to Irpin. In the same attack, two more journalists were injured and escaped.
Renaud, 50, was the first foreign journalist to die in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Local police confirmed that he was targeted by Russian soldiers.
Also Read | Death of first foreign journalist in Ukraine exposes high risk of anti-media climate created by Russia
Despite fleeing a deliberate attack at the cost of their lives, the case of a team from British broadcaster Sky News exemplifies the risks journalists face in the Ukraine war.
on March 4, The car in which a network reporting team was traveling was ambushed and two professionals were injuredincluding Stuart Ramsay, one of the network’s top journalists.
The chief correspondent of Sky News was shot in the back during the gunfire that hit the car on its way to the city of Bucha, 30 kilometers from Kiev.
Camera operator Richie Mockler was shot twice in his vest until he was rescued by Ukrainian police, before the crew managed to escape and hide in a factory shed.
Despite being shot, cameraman Mockler filmed the entire attack in a shocking video showing the panic unabated. The cries of professionals who said they were journalists were ignored by the attackers.
This is absolutely terrifying – Stuart Ramsay and his Sky News crew were targeted in Ukraine by a professional Russian hit team.
It’s surprising that cameraman Richie Mockler managed to film this despite being under heavy fire.
They returned safely to England. https://t.co/Rs4xVuNukw pic.twitter.com/gKyIzbRNwN
— Tim Gatt (@TimGatt) March 4, 2022
He was the first journalist to die in the Ukrainian war; The Russian was also a victim.
First journalist killed in the war in Ukraine Kyiv Live TV cameraman Evgeny Sakun. It was shot down during the bombing of the Kyiv television tower on March 1.
On this occasion, the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) published the professional badge on social media. In addition to mourning the loss of the cameraman, RSF accused those responsible for his death of committing a war crime.
In the week when the conflict completed a month, Russian journalist Oksana Baulina from research site The Insiderdied after Russian troops bombarded a residential area in Kiev. In the attack that took place on 23 March, a civilian was killed and two others were injured.
On April 2, award-winning Lithuanian documentary filmmaker Mantas Kvedaravicius joined the list of media professionals who died while covering the conflict.
He is best known for his 2016 film “Mariupolis,” which won awards at film festivals in Berlin, Hong Kong, and Stockholm, as well as the Best Documentary award at the Lithuanian Film Awards, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has confirmed that the Lithuanian, who was shot by Russian soldiers while trying to leave Mariupol, a city besieged by the Russian army, died. The filmmaker was hospitalized, but could not resist.
Also Read | Award-winning Lithuanian director for the movie Mariupol died while fleeing the Ukrainian city he portrayed.
Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, a 32-year-old French journalist from BFMTV, died on 30 June. Shot by shrapnel after a Russian attack on a rescue vehicle in Ukraine.
professionalAccording to the company, it was the second time for the publisher to document the war since the beginning of the conflict. He was killed while following a Ukrainian evacuation operation in the Severodonetsk region.
The reporter watched the humanitarian aid operation from inside an armored vehicle crashed by Russian soldiers. Leclerc-Imhoff was with teammate Maxime Brandstaetter, who was slightly injured, and local producer (mechanic) Oksana Leuta unharmed.
Entity says journalists are not targets in wars
On World Press Freedom Day, celebrated on May 3, the international organization CPJ (Committee to Protect Journalists) called for an end to attacks on journalists and media professionals in the war in Ukraine.
The initiative’s hashtag is #NotATarget (#NãoSãoAlvos). The campaign video features emotional testimonies from family members and colleagues of professionals who lost their lives in the war.
“All journalists and media workers are civilians under international humanitarian law and their rights must be respected and protected,” says CPJ Executive Director Robert Mahoney.
The CPJ video also includes the testimony of the brother of American documentary filmmaker Brent Renaud, who was killed after being shot by Russian soldiers in the town of Irpin on March 13:
“One of the things that made the difference with Brent and succeeded in our films was how much he cared about the people we shot. And in the end, Brent died because of it.
He was trying to reach a bridge, far from the place of the conflict, but where the refugees were trying to escape from Ukraine with a few belongings.”
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source: Noticias
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