May 3 traditionally marks World Press Freedom Day. It is common knowledge that, on December 20, 1993, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution stipulating this date that symbolises the international community’s commitment to the principles of media independence and pluralism, as well as providing free access to information.

We are disappointed to note that, in the past few years, World Press Freedom Day is marked more often as a mere formality; the ideals and principles of this date reflect the real situation in media space to a smaller extent. Under the pretext of combating “misinformation,” they are subjecting Russian media outlets and journalists to reprisals and oppression. In their striving to establish control over global media space, Western countries have virtually declared a full-scale war that utilises such weapons as political censorship, lies and an aggressive propaganda of war. 

Unfortunately, we now see this date as a pretext for recalling that the situation in the sphere of safeguarding journalists’ work remains critical, despite all loud calls and “correct” statements that we regularly hear from the rostrums of international human rights organisations.

Since early 2025, deliberate attacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine have killed five representatives of Russian media outlets. On January 4, a Ukrainian drone conducted a precision strike against a civilian vehicle and killed Izvestia correspondent Alexander Martemyanov. On March 24, a deliberate artillery strike by the Armed Forces of Ukraine against the Lugansk People’s Republic killed Izvestia correspondent Alexander Fedorchak and cameraman Andrey Panov from Zvezda television channel. On April 22, Zvezda correspondent Nikita Goldin died from his wounds in a hospital. On March 26, a mine, planted by Ukrainian militants, blew up a car carrying a film crew from Television Channel One; the terrorist attack killed war correspondent Anna Prokofyeva. Numerous media employees were injured to a varying extent. Since February 2022, Ukrainian Nazis have killed and injured dozens of media employees. It is still possible to access the Mirotvorets extremist website that lists reporters, public activists, writers and all those branded as ideological opponents by the Zelensky regime; all of them have been sentenced to be executed. 

Anton Voloshin, Igor Kornelyuk, Anatoly Klyan, Andrey Stenin, Darya Dugina, Oleg Klokov, Maxim Fomin (Vladlen Tatarsky), Rostislav Zhuravlev, Boris Maksudov, Semyon Eremin, Valery Kozhin, Nikita Tsitsagi and Yulia Kuznetsova will remain in our hearts forever. Terrorist methods are being used to implement these criminal plans, while Ukraine's Western curators and biased human rights organisations continue to deliberately remain oblivious to these atrocities.

We believe that the memory of those who gave their lives while fulfilling their professional duty is sacred. And those responsible for the deaths of journalists must be punished accordingly. Therefore, we will continue to insist that relevant organisations, such as UNESCO (including its Director General), the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the institute of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, act in accordance with their direct responsibilities, unequivocally condemning these brutal crimes. Our delegations and permanent missions to international organisations will seek full-fledged comments and statements by authorised officials regarding bloody reprisals against our correspondents by militants of the Kiev regime. We will do everything to ensure that this topic is consistently raised at all conferences, in all our speeches at relevant discussions and roundtable events to rule out any possibilities to ignore it. And no patronage from Western sponsors will help Zelensky's henchmen avoid a just retribution.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation acted as an information partner of the exhibition, Died for the Truth, dedicated to Russian war correspondents, journalists, cameramen and other media personnel who fell victim to militants and accomplices of the Kiev regime, to draw additional attention to this extremely important topic for us in connection with World Press Freedom Day. The exhibition was prepared by news agencies of new Russian regions jointly with journalist Alexander Malkevich, a member of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, and is being shown online and offline on sites and web resources of Russian diplomatic missions and Russian houses abroad. There is a tragedy of an individual who died prematurely at the hands of Ukrainian neo–Nazis, as well as a story of courage and selfless service to one’s professional duty until the last moment of his or her life, behind each portrait in this sorrowful gallery. The virtual project #DiedForTheTruth, on which the exhibition is based, has been designed to preserve the memory of these brave journalists and military correspondents and to prevent the bloody crimes committed against them from being forgotten. We invite everybody, primarily colleagues from the media sphere and concerned people to get acquainted with this exhibition. It would be especially useful for representatives of the relevant international organisations, many of whom continue to remain stubbornly silent, deliberately ignoring these atrocities.