OSCE Media Freedom Representative mourns journalists killed in Ukraine, warns of rapidly deteriorating safety situation for media workers

VIENNA, 24 March 2022 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Teresa Ribeiro today condemned the killing of Oksana Baulina, a journalist with The Insider investigative project, in Kyiv yesterday and reiterated her serious concern about the safety of journalists in the context of the Russian military attack against Ukraine. 

“Baulina’s death is yet another horrific reminder of the rapidly deteriorating situation concerning journalists’ safety as a result of the Russian military attack against Ukraine,” Ribeiro said.

According to The Insider, Oksana Baulina died under fire in Kyiv on 23 March. She was reportedly filming the destruction after Russian troops shelled the Podil District of the Ukrainian capital. Another civilian was also killed in the same attack, and two more people who accompanied Baulina were wounded and hospitalized.

Baulina is one of at least four journalists known to have been killed in last two weeks while working in Ukraine:

• on 13 March, a US journalist and filmmaker Brent Renaud, who was working in the region for Time, was shot dead in the town of Irpin near Kyiv, while two other journalists, including Juan Arredondo, were injured and taken to hospital;
• on 15 March, Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and journalist Oleksandra Kuvshinova were killed by fire in Horenka near Kyiv, while their colleague, Benjamin Hall, was wounded and hospitalized.

Ribeiro also noted reports that on 11 March, Viktor Dedov, a chief cameraperson for the local television station Sigma, was killed during the bombing of his house in Mariupol.

“I express my sincere condolences and sympathies to the journalists’ families, friends and colleagues,” Ribeiro said.

The Representative further expressed her profound concern regarding the growing number of reports on cases of disappearance and abduction of Ukrainian journalists and hostage taking of their relatives, including in an apparent attempt to intimidate and force media workers to co-operate with the Russian side:

• on 12 March, Victoria Roshchina, a journalist with Hromadske media outlet, who reported on the Russian invasion in Ukraine, went missing in the city of Berdiansk and was released after about ten days; on 11 March, Roschina was also, reportedly, shot at when her vehicle passed a column of Russian tanks near the city of Zaporizhia;
• on 12 March, Oleh Baturyn, a journalist for the newspaper Novyi Den, went missing in the town of Kakhovka and was released on 20 March with reports of ill-treatment while in detention;
• on 13 March, a well-known photojournalist Maksim (Maks) Levin went missing, after he was last seen in the Vyshgorod district near Kyiv, where he went to photograph the frontline;
• on 21 March, editor-in-chief Yevgeniya Boryan and the journalists Yuliya Olkhovskaya and Lyubov Chaika of the newspaper Melitopolski Vidomosti (part of MV media holding), as well as publisher Mykhailo Kumok of MV, his wife and daughter were briefly detained in the city of Melitopol;
• on 23 March, Svetlana Zalizetskaya, director of the newspaper Glavnaya Gazeta Melitopolya and the RIA-Melitopol news website, reported that her 75-year old father was detained as a hostage in the city of Melitopol to put pressure on her.

Various reports also indicate that in the course of the last two weeks, because of shelling by the Russian military, several broadcasting facilities, including television towers in the cities of Vinnytsya and Rivne, were damaged.

“I reiterate that violence against journalists and their equipment under any circumstances, including in conflict situations, is unacceptable. Media professionals must be considered and protected as civilians,” Ribeiro said.

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media observes media developments in all 57 OSCE participating States. She provides early warning on violations of freedom of expression and media freedom and promotes full compliance with OSCE media freedom commitments. Learn more at www.osce.org/fom, Twitter: @OSCE_RFoM and on www.facebook.com/osce.rfom.