“Journalism in Russia has died this week” with the invasion of Ukraine, says the secretary general of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Christophe Deloire, paraphrasing the message he received from a famous Russian journalist to explain the situation with the invasion of Ukraine.
Until now, Vladimir Putin only allowed “some pockets of resistance” from independent journalismexplains Deloire in an interview with Eph. But with the war the situation “is getting seriously worse”, so that a situation of “almost total repression” is being experienced, unprecedented “at least for the post-Soviet period”.
In practice, “it is not possible to do independent journalism” and the only remaining independent Russian media outlet is Novaya GazetaAdd.
It also affects foreigners, several of whom -like Efe- have decided to suspend the work of their correspondents due to the new law that punishes the publication of information about the invasion of Ukraine that power considers false with up to 15 years in prison.
A suspension that the person in charge of RSF considers “legitimate” because in his opinion the risk is not only that Moscow expels journalists from the country but, as has been seen in the case of regimes such as the Turkish or the Chinese, “there is a possibility that they will be taken as institutional hostages”.
Possibility of blackmailing foreign media
His imprisonment could be used by the Kremlin as a means of pressure on the newsrooms and even on the countries of origin.
Deloire refuses to link this new turn of the screw in media repression in Russia with the ban by the EU on its territory, since last week, of broadcasts of Russia Today (RT) and Sputnikconsidering that they are two means of propaganda.
First, because we must not fall into the “naivety” of putting RT and Sputnik on the same level, “created by a censorious, repressive and propagandist State to try to destabilize democracies”, and because Putin did not need to find the excuse of retaliation.
But although the suspension seems “legitimate on the merits”, he criticizes that it has been taken urgently and without legal support. RSF had made, precisely, a proposal for a “system of democratic information spaces” with which the European institutions should build a legal framework.
His argument is that since the space of communication is globalized, rules are needed to “prevent propaganda media from working unhindered in democracies.”
Deloire emphasizes that in Ukraine, although the situation “has not been perfect” in terms of press freedom in recent years“compared to what happens in Russia, there is no color”, because both Ukrainian and foreign journalists “can work easily”.
With the war – he points out – in the short term there is “a very great risk” for one and the other in terms of security, especially for the Ukrainians who they are not used to covering warThey do not have material or training, unlike certain reporters who come from abroad and have experienced war conflicts.
“Some of them are becoming war reporters, who have not gone to war because it is the war that has gone to them,” he acknowledges.
That is why RSF has created a “center for press freedom” in the city of Lviv, in western Ukraine, which will open in the coming days to provide assistance to Ukrainian and foreign journalists with training and material, since every day they receive “dozens and dozens of demands”, for example for helmets or bulletproof vests.
Complaint for war crimes
The organization is aware that different teams of journalists have been shot at. A Ukrainian cameraman was killed when the Kiev television tower was destroyed, one of four that Russian forces have blown up in as many cities.
“There is a clear Moscow policy of attacking the media” -Deloire highlights- and that is why Reporters has filed a complaint with the Prosecutor of the International Court of Justice (CPI) for war crimes.
And although he knows that international justice is slow, awaits “a conviction of Vladimir Putin and his accomplices for war crimes against journalistswhich are civilians, or against civilian infrastructure”.
The lawsuit before the ICC “is a way to fight against the impunity of those who perpetrate these war crimes,” he concludes. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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