“Having forgotten about the reputational price, the Kremlin kidnaps and kills journalists,” Christo Grozev

“A country that decides to start a war completely forgets the concept of reputational cost. This is what has happened to the Kremlin now. And when there is no reputational cost, there are no more rules, including the rule that journalists must be protected by the law, by the state,” said the Bulgarian media expert and investigative journalist/head of the Bellingcat publication, Christo Grozev, in an interview for Radio Liberty.

“When a country like Russia completely forgets the concept of reputational cost, journalists begin to be kidnapped, killed, shot at, poisoned, etc. So, unfortunately, since the beginning of the war, we have seen a significant increase in cases where we have to investigate attempts to kill our colleagues and even ourselves,” the journalist said.

At the same time, Christo Grozev added, during the war, the demand for the work of investigative journalists increases, including among law enforcement officers of the International Criminal Court and various countries.

“Law enforcement agencies of some countries turn to investigative journalists because they do not have a presence in other countries due to the concept of the sovereignty of the legal system: one country cannot investigate in the territory of another,” explained Christo Grozev.

NUJU Information Service