Parties must understand: journalists are civilians – Committee to Protect Journalists
Parties to the war in Ukraine must understand that journalists are civilians and targeting them is a violation of international law, Coordinator of the Europe and Central Asia Program of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Gulnoza Said has said.
The coordinator said at an online briefing on Friday that it is important to emphasize that all sides of this war must understand that all journalists and media workers are civilians and must be protected under international humanitarian law, and targeting them (especially documented cases when they were wearing press signs, their cars were marked as press) is a violation of international law and the perpetrators must be held accountable.
She recalled that four journalists had already died in the three weeks of the war.
"Four journalists were killed: 2 local and 2 foreign in the first 3 weeks of the full-scale war," she said.
According to her, Yevhen Sakun was the first victim, he was killed on March 1 when Russian troops shelled a TV tower in Kyiv, American reporter Brent Renault was killed on March 13, and Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and Fox News producer, a local journalist, were killed on March 14 Oleksandra Kuvshynova.
In addition, Said drew attention to the fact that the Russian state media reports that there are no journalists in Ukraine and that they are all propagandists, because the Russian military does not show any respect for journalists.
In the case of the journalists who were killed, we were able to confirm that two journalists were directly targeted, and in two other cases the source of the fire was not confirmed, although the Ukrainian side said that the Russians did it, the representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists said.
In addition, Said noted that the Committee to Protect Journalists documented cases when the Russian military detained dozens of journalists in Ukraine and tried to force them to produce Russian propaganda.
