RT accuses UN agency of ignoring attacks on Russian reporters

UNESCO has failed to address the killings of Russian journalists in a draft report on violence against the media

RT has sent a letter to UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay, denouncing the UN body’s failure to include deadly Ukrainian attacks on Russian journalists in its draft report on violence against media professionals around the world.

“Having read in detail the UNESCO Director-General’s draft Report on the Safety of Journalists and the Danger of Impunity, RT TV channel expresses its indignation at the fact that the cases of murders, attacks and threats against Russian journalists have been completely ignored – yet again,” the letter reads.

RT also accused the international organization of failing to maintain neutrality when it comes to Russian media.

The letter lists a number of incidents that were absent from the report. Among them are two separate assassination plots against RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, which were foiled by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in April 2022 and July 2023, respectively. RT notes that Russian authorities believe domestic neo-Nazi groups were behind the schemes, acting on orders from Ukrainian intelligence.

According to the letter, while RT correspondents and their crews covering the Ukraine conflict have repeatedly received death threats since 2014, when hostilities broke out, the number of such cases has shot up since the beginning of Moscow’s military campaign in February 2022.

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The Ukrainian military has also been targeting Russian journalists in the war zone, often using kamikaze drones, the letter says, adding that operators of such systems can clearly see who they are striking.

Back in June, Russian President Vladimir Putin estimated that at least 30 Russian journalists had been killed in the line of duty since the Ukraine conflict flared up in 2022.

RT pointed to a strike against its correspondent Steve Sweeney and his crew near Donetsk in January 2024, as an example of a deliberate attack. The letter concludes by saying that numerous Russian reporters working for other media outlets have been wounded or even killed under similar circumstances.

A publicly available version of UNESCO’s report, covering the period between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2023, only mentions the killings of two Russian journalists since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022: Rostislav Zhuravlev and Oksana Baulina.

Zhuravlev worked for RIA Novosti and died in Zaporozhye Region last July. Baulina worked for the Latvia-based, pro-Ukraine media outlet The Insider and was covering the early days of Moscow’s military offensive in Kiev, when she was killed by an alleged Russian mortar shell.

Commenting on Zhuravlev’s death, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova slammed UNESCO at the time, accusing it of selective blindness regarding Ukraine’s “lawlessness.”

Last month, the diplomat also called out the organization for being “criminally silent” on deadly attacks against journalists in the Middle East.