The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) confirmed the death of the Russian journalist Oksana Baulina, killed after coming under Russian shelling with another civilian while she filmed destruction at a shopping centre in Podil district in Kyiv, Ukraine. She is the sixth journalist to die since the war began.
The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ) once again condemn the bombing of civilian targets by the Russian army.
Oksana Baulina had been reporting from Kyiv and Lviv for investigative Russian website The Insider. The publication said: “We will continue to cover the war in Ukraine, including such Russian war crimes as indiscriminate shelling of residential areas which result in the deaths of civilians and journalists.”
Baulina, 42, worked as a producer for Alexander Navalny‘s Anti-Corruption Foundation. She left Russia after authorities declared the Foundation an “extremist organisation” in 2021.
“Some journalists are deliberately targeted with the clear intention of intimidating the entire profession, which constitutes a war crime. Others are shot at in residential areas with multiple civilian casualties. The EFJ is in touch with the commission, under the OSCE Moscow mechanism, which can establish these war crimes. We call on the targeted journalists or any witnesses to testify. These crimes cannot go unpunished,” said EFJ General Secretary Ricardo Gutiérrez.
At least five other reporters have been killed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine:
- Yevheniy Sakun, an Ukrainian cameraman for LIVE TV killed on 1 March during a rockets attack on the TV tower in Kyiv;
- Ukrainian journalist Viktor Dedov died on 11 March in Mariupol after his flat was bombed;
- Brent Renaud, a US journalist shot dead in Irpin, on 13 March;
- Pierre Zakrzewski, Fox News camera operator, and Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshnova, killed on 14 March while reporting from Horenka.
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) deplored that multiple journalists in Ukraine have gone missing or been detained since the start of the war a month ago, including photojournalist and documentary filmmaker Maks Levin, who has been missing since March 13.
During Vladimir Putin’s 22-year war against the independent media, a few critical voices were tolerated – until the war in Ukraine, writes Ann Cooper, professor emerita at Columbia Journalism School and a former executive director of CPJ. In recent weeks in Russia, calling the war a “war” has been outlawed, independent media outlets were shut down, and major social media platforms were blocked, plunging the country into an information dark age.
Russian authorities have detained and questioned journalists for their reporting, raided newspaper offices, and more than 150 journalists have fled the country.
“Ukrainian and Russian authorities must do everything in their power to ensure the safety of journalists and all other civilians, and to thoroughly investigate attacks on members of the press,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator.
