FACT CHECK: 'He was not a journalist,' Kremlin says about Reuters staffer killed in strike
The Kremlin neither denied nor admitted Russian responsibility for a missile attack on a hotel hosting foreign journalists in Kramatorsk, Eastern Ukraine, on August 24.
The strike killed Ryan Evans, a safety adviser for a Reuters news agency crew, and injured two Reuters journalists and other reporters at the scene.
Reuters said it is investigating the strike to find out who was behind the attack and whether it was deliberate.
Ukrainian officials said Russia hit the hotel with an Iskander-M ballistic missile, causing damage to private residences and businesses.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov downplayed the significance of the attack, arguing Russia does not target civilians and that Evans was not a journalist.
"I read information from the agency staff that he was not a journalist, but some kind of security advisor. I repeat once again: strikes are carried out on military infrastructure, or facilities in one way or another related to military infrastructure."
That is false.
International humanitarian law and the law of warfare protect all members of press crews regardless of their roles.
The United Nations Geneva Convention's Article 79 states that press crews working in conflict zones are considered civilians and protected from any type of hostilities. Protocol 1 of that law specifies that holding a press ID card "attests to the status of its holder as a journalist."
While formally not a journalist, Evans was a member of a Reuters news crew and had been employed by the agency since 2022. He was entitled to the same protections as other civilians under international law, which also forbids directly targeting civilian objects. #factcheck #voanews
https://www.voanews.com/a/he-was-not-...
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