France calls for protection for journalists covering Ukraine conflict
France has called for warring countries to protect journalists, following the deaths of several reporters covering Russia's war in Ukraine, including a French-Irish Fox News cameraman.
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"I recall the obligation incumbent on armed forces to protect journalists in line with international humanitarian law," Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a statement on Wednesday, condemning the targeting of journalists.
The events “illustrate the extreme danger in the Ukrainian theatre today".
On Tuesday Fox News said French-Irish cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and producer Oleksandra Kuvshynova were killed when their vehicle was struck in Horenka, outside the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, on Monday.
Le Drian singled out Zakrzewski, 55, who had been working in Ukraine since February, as someone "who covered a great number of theatres of war as a passionate fighter for the right to inform".
He had covered most international conflicts for Fox News, and had spent a lot of time in India and Pakistan in particular, covering the conflict in Kashmir.
Le Drian offered condolences to his family and that of Kuvshynova, 24, who Fox News said had earned a reputation for being "hard-working, funny, kind and brave" while working with the crew to cover the conflict.
British correspondent Benjamin Hall was wounded in the same attack and remains in hospital in Ukraine.
At least three other journalists have been killed in the three weeks of the war so far, including US documentary maker Brent Renaud in Kyiv and Ukrainian journalists Evgeny Sakun, who died in a Russian strike on a Kyiv television tower, and Viktor Dudar, who was killed in the southern port city of Mykolaiv.
French media watchdog Reporters without Borders (RSF) said it had set up a Press Freedom centre for journalists in Lviv, western Ukraine to provide basic training to local reporters, and supplies such as bullet proof vests and helmets.
UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay, in a press statement, called for journalists to "never be targeted," and for "international humanitarian norms" to be respected.
(with wires)
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