On Wednesday 26 April 2023 Bogdan Bitik (Богдан Битик), born 1977, an Ukrainian fixer for the Italian daily La Repubblica, was killed in a Russian attack in the Kherson Raion(Херсонський район) in Ukraine. La Repubblica correspondent Corrado Zunino, was injured in the same attack.
Fixers are local media workers who assist foreign journalists with translation, guidance, and other tasks.
Bitik and Zunino were targeted near the Antonivsky bridge (Антонівський міст – Antoniwskyj mist), where they were hoping to speak with members of the Ukrainian forces. Both men were wearing blue bulletproof vests marked with “PRESS” when they were attacked.
According to Corrado Zunino, they passed three checkpoints and spoke to the Ukrainian military before the incident occurred. Suddenly, they heard a hissing sound, and Bogdan fell to the ground and was motionless. Zunino crawled away from the gunfire and ran until he came across a car. He was full of blood and had four wounds, but he was treated well at the hospital in Kherson. Despite trying to contact Bogdan multiple times, Zunino received no answer.
Additional to Bitik, at least 12 journalists and media workers, mostly from Ukraine, have been killed and 18 injured since March 2022. List of killed journalist is visible on www.seemo.org .
#fyp #mediafreedom #seemo #freespeech #southeasteuropemediaorganisation #ngo #journalist #journalistunerattack #ukraine #ukrainewar #BogdanBitik #CorradoZunino #jorunalistkilled #journalisthurt #minsk #kherson #SEEMO #pressfreedom #mediafreedom #freemedia