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Russia won’t let UNESCO report on journalist safety pass without revisions — diplomat

The report was presented at the November 21-22 session of the International Program for the Development of Communication inter-governmental council

MOSCOW, November 27. /TASS/. Russia will not allow the adoption of the report by UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay journalist safety and fighting impunity without revisions, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during a briefing.

Previously, while assessing Azoulay’s draft report, the Russian Foreign Ministry and a number of Russian media outlets expressed their outrage that information about the death of Russian journalists was missing and called to add this data to the report.

The report was presented at the November 21-22 session of the International Program for the Development of Communication (IPDC) inter-governmental council. According to the document, 162 media employees were killed between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2023, 72 of them in conflict areas. The addendum to the report lists all murdered reporters by country, thus positing that 14 media employees were killed in Ukraine in 2022-2023, only one of them being Russian - Rostislav Zhuravlyov. The UNESCO Director-General expressed her "condolences" over Zhuravlyov’s death in the official statement. The report was not approved during the session.

"We will not allow the adoption of this document without the necessary corrections," Zakharova said, noting that Russia will do everything possible in order to prevent international bodies from being used to further some political agendas "in the interest of a narrow group of countries that are aggressive toward the global community."

"An appropriate response will be provided to each case of such arbitrariness from international bureaucrats, who devotedly align themselves with the viewpoint of the collective West," Zakharova assured. "This is about protecting the memory of those who fell while doing their duty. […] Their names are often hidden behind vague references to 'journalists' safety' without acknowledging them personally."