Slidstvo.Info presents a documentary abour Russia's crimes against journalists based on IMI's monitoring
Slidstvo.Info presents a documentary about Russia's crimes against journalists, titled "Occupation: The Price of Truth", based on the monitoring by the Institute of Mass Information. The film was announced ahead of June 5, the Journalist's Day.
The documentary focuses on Ukrainian journalists who have been under occupation during the war and have suffered violence at the hands of the Russian military due to their profession: the journalists who were killed or kidnapped, captured or tortured, the editors write.
"We have been working on this investigation for about half a year, talked to more than 20 Ukrainian journalists who have been abducted, interrogated and threatened. Despite the occupation, they kept doing their job and did not side with the enemy. They are heroes ideed," says the director of the film, Yanina Korniyenko.
Namely, the film covers the stories of Kherson journalist Oleh Baturyn, Melitopol journalist Svitlana Zalizetska, and Kyiv journalist Dmytro Khyliuk. All of them have suffered at the hands of the Russians for trying to speak the truth about the war despite the circumstances.
The "Slidstvo.Info" editor-in-chief, Anna Babinets, noted that the crimes against journalists are systematic.
"They came to everyone, encouraging them to work for the occupiers, threatening them. Then they would kidnap the journalist or their family members, beat them, force them to confess to espionage. All these efforts were well-planned, systematic – the extermination of professional journalism in the first weeks of the occupation," Babinets noted.
She added that according to the victims whose testimonies the agency's investigators managed to collect, the enforcers "working" with the journalists were in almost all cases from the Russian FSB.
The documentary will premier at a limited screening in Kyiv on June 5 and in several Ukrainian cities on June 6 (the places and events will be announced on the Slidstvo.Info website and social media). The film will also be available on the Slidstvo.Info YouTube channel.
The investigation into Russia's war crimes against Ukrainian journalists was carried out by Slidstvo.Info together with the Reporters Without Borders network (France) and the Institute of Mass Information (Ukraine).
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