Executed Free Speech: a project covering russian war crimes against media workers presented in Mykolayiv

On August 9, the city of Mykolayiv hosted the presentation of the Executed Free Speech project about the war crimes committed by russians against the media representatives. The project was implemented by the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU).

According to the First Secretary of NUJU, Lina Kushch, the project is an overview of the situation with russian attacks on media workers since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by russia.

“The team recorded video stories of more than 100 journalists who became victims or eyewitnesses of war crimes committed by russia. These are media workers from Kherson, Mariupol, Melitopol, Bucha, Kharkiv, Bakhmut, and other “hot spots” of the full-scale war,” she said. “This is a project that we carried out with the support of the Swedish human rights organization Civil Rights Defenders.”

The authors want to show this video to as many journalists as possible and talk about the negative consequences of the russian invasion for the Ukrainian media.

“These are murders and injuries of journalists. These are kidnappings, illegal detentions, the destruction of Ukrainian media buildings, the impact on the financial state of the newsrooms themselves, dismissals, closing of the newsroom, psychological, negative consequences, etc. Our goal is to put pressure on the international community to bring the perpetrators to justice by presenting the testimonies of journalists who were witnesses or victims of russian war crimes,” she said.

The participants in the event were also presented with a special brochure comprising materials about the history of the destructive influence of the occupiers on the information space of Ukraine.

“After the start of a full-scale war, the first request from journalists was about safety: most of them did not have protective equipment and skills to work in combat zones. We began to turn to international partners to provide equipment and conduct online training sessions on aspects of safe work in combat zones. We also provided aid in the form of generators, power banks, and cameras,” the presentation said.

Many Ukrainian journalists resumed their work in shelling-hit and de-occupied territories, but 22% of newsrooms lost access to property or premises as a result of the war: offices were heavily damaged or completely destroyed.

Lyudmila Huseinova, the communications director of SEMA Ukraine and a citizen journalist, was captured by DPR [so-called Donetsk People’s Republic] militants precisely for her pro-Ukrainian position. The woman was nearly shot, but amnesty for the death penalty saved her. Some colleagues are still in enemy captivity.

“I lived in the occupied territory of the Donetsk Region. In 2019, I was arrested and released in 2022 during a major female exchange. I am a citizen journalist, and during the events of 2014, together with other journalists, we helped children who lived in occupied territory. These were children from a disbanded children’s boarding school. But, unfortunately, no one needed them. I wrote about it on social networks and did not hide my name. And, of course, we wrote about what was happening in the occupied territory, which eventually led to my arrest. And this is an example of the fact that it is not possible to say something freely in the occupied territories; there is no way for the whole country to find out what is happening there.”

Unfortunately, 68 journalists have been killed since the beginning of the war. The number includes 15 correspondents who were performing their duties in the war zone. Ten journalists were killed in their own homes or as a result of shelling on the streets. Others were killed defending the country at the front. The participants in the event commemorated all the fallen colleagues with a moment of silence.

It is journalists who, during the war, become one of the main targets for the russians. The event’s main message was: for every war crime committed against media representatives, the guilty representatives of the aggressor country must be brought to justice.

SVIDOK.info.