Ukraine / Europe & Central Asia

Paris, July 25, 2022 — Ukrainian and Russian authorities should ensure that artillery attacks do not damage civilian infrastructure, including media offices, and let the press report freely and safely on the war in Ukraine, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. On July 15, Russian forces shelled the editorial office of Zorya, a newspaper…

For journalists operating in hostile environments, having the correct safety equipment such as helmets and flak jackets can be the difference between life and death. Nowhere has this been clearer than in Ukraine, where personal protective equipment (PPE) is in short supply, and where journalists have been gravely – and even fatally – injured throughout…

Paris, July 6, 2022 – Ukrainian and Russian authorities should ensure that all journalists covering the war in Ukraine can work freely and safely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. On Monday, July 4, Andrei Alekseyev, an assistant camera operator with the Russian public broadcaster TV Centre, was hit by shrapnel in his head…

Ruslan Smieshchuk, a reporter for privately owned Ukrainian TV channel Inter, had long dreamed of being a war correspondent when he covered his first conflict, the 2008 Russia-Georgia war, for local Odessa TV channel ATV. Now he hopes that the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war will be his last battlefield assignment. “War is a lot of pain and grief,” he told CPJ.   The 38-year-old…

New York, June 30, 2022 – Ukrainian authorities should swiftly and thoroughly investigate threats recently received by journalists Sevgil Musaieva and Sonia Lukashova, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. Musaieva, chief editor of the independent Ukrainian news website Ukrainska Pravda, and Lukashova, a correspondent for the outlet, have received threatening phone calls and online…

New York, June 3, 2022 – In response to reports about the Friday incident that killed a driver and injured two Reuters correspondents after the vehicle they were traveling in came under fire near the eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement: “We are saddened by the death…

Paris, June 2, 2022 — Russian and Ukrainian authorities must ensure the safety of journalists reporting on the war in Ukraine and investigate the shelling that seriously injured Ukrainian fixer and documentarian Mykola Pastukh, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. On May 28, Russian forces shelled the eastern city of Lysychansk, in the Luhansk…

New York, May 30, 2022 – The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply saddened by the death of French journalist Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff while covering the war in Ukraine, CPJ Executive Director Robert Mahoney said Monday. Leclerc-Imhoff, a reporter for French broadcast BFMTV, was reported killed on Monday, May 30, after an armored evacuation vehicle came under “enemy…

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine presents a danger not only for reporters operating in the war zone. The campaign could also pose a broader threat to press freedoms and other civil liberties if it brings the Kremlin closer to its dream of creating a domestically controlled internet. Russia’s internet regulator, Rozkomnadzor, has long been able to…

New York, May 20, 2022 – Ukrainian photojournalist and blogger Ihor Hudenko, who lost contact with his friends and family while in the northeastern city of Kharkiv on February 26, died that day, according to his colleague, journalist Oleg Peregon, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app after learning of Hudenko’s death Friday. Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne…