Reporters Without Borders Fails to Explain Disregard of Russian Correspondents' Deaths

PARIS (Sputnik) - Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has refused to give any comments to Sputnik on why its military correspondent Rostislav Zhuravlev and Rossiya 24 TV channel correspondent Boris Maksudov had not been included in the list of journalists killed in Ukraine in 2023, citing "editorial policy."

After RSF released last week its annual report on journalists killed in the line of duty worldwide, Sputnik sent the organization a request to comment on the absence of the two Russian reporters on the list. RSF spokeswoman Elena Garcia said she would forward the request to her colleague responsible for the region of Russia and Eastern Europe. However, later she told Sputnik that everyone "was busy" and "no one could give a comment" on the topic.

Once a Sputnik correspondent announced their intention to wait for explanations in real time, Garcia said "it would not be possible" for the media outlet to get any comments.

"We do not provide comments to this type of media. This is against our editorial policy," the RSF spokeswoman said in a telephone conversation with Sputnik.

When asked what type of media she meant, Garcia just ignored the question and ended the conversation by hanging up the phone.

Zhuravlev was killed by a Ukrainian cluster bomb strike in the Zaporozhye Region in late July. Maksudov was injured in a Ukrainian targeted drone attack against journalists in the Zaporozhye Region on November 22 and died of his wounds on the following day.

However, RSF's annual report says only 11 journalists have been killed in Ukraine since the start of the conflict in February 2022, with two of them — Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist Arman Soldin and Ukrainian journalist Bohdan Bitik — killed in 2023 alone.