MOSCOW, November 2. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has directed the global community’s attention to the importance of pooling efforts to protect the activity of journalists as well as the need for all states to undertake exhaustive measures for ensuring their safety.

"Despite the measures undertaken by the global community, the situation with protecting media professionals from criminal acts and the inevitability of punishment for the crimes committed against them still leave much to be desired. <...> On this day, we consider it particularly important to reiterate the need for the entire international community to work together to guarantee the right of freedom of expression, and that all countries undertake comprehensive measures to protect journalists from criminal attacks and create a safe working environment for them," her commentary dedicated to the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists marked on November 2 made public on Tuesday said.

"We believe that the media’s proper fulfillment of their professional activity is the fundamental condition for the function of a democratic state, and for maintaining dialogue between cultures, in addition to supporting peace and prosperity in the community," the spokeswoman added.

According to her, the grim statistics of attacks and murders of reporters for performing their professional obligations have been witnessed in different countries, including those not engaged in conflicts. For instance, over the past 10 years, thousands of the representatives of media outlets have been murdered worldwide while fulfilling their professional duties, and the majority of them were killed not during armed conflicts.

"By far, in not all cases were [those guilty] brought to justice nor was the possibility of such incidents repeating themselves minimized. Particular alarm is caused by the situation in those countries where the authorities condone crimes against professionals from ‘disliked’ or ‘disloyal’ media outlets that promote a point of view alternative to the official one, thereby fomenting further aggression against them, and laying the groundwork for more and more conditions for fearmongering, oppression and violence," the Russian diplomat pointed out.