During the full-scale invasion, Russia killed more than 50 Ukrainian and foreign journalists

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has committed more than 500 crimes against the media. The occupiers killed more than 50 Ukrainian and foreign journalists in Ukraine. This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Editorial offices in the temporarily occupied territories lost their buildings and received numerous threats, due to which they were forced to stop their activities, the situation with freedom of speech in Crimea has deteriorated critically.

“Russia deliberately isolates the occupied territories from the Ukrainian information space, instead it broadcasts its propaganda channels that discredit the Ukrainian state and the Defense Forces,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported. The department called on the international community to increase pressure on Russia due to murders, torture and persecution of journalists.

“The mass media of the Russian Federation should be deprived of the right to spread fakes about the war unleashed by the Russian Federation, not to be able to hide the consequences of attacks on Ukrainian territory, to justify the death of the civilian population and the deliberate destruction of the infrastructure and cultural objects of Ukraine,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs summarized.

On World Press Freedom Day, the representatives of Reporters Without Borders released a rating of media independence in 180 countries and territories of the world. Ukraine rose from 106th place to 79th in one year.