December 15 - Day of Remembrance of Journalists Who Died in the Line of Duty

On December 15, Russia pays tribute to journalists who died in the line of duty in hot spots and in peacetime. The commemorative date was established by the Russian Union of Journalists (RUJR) and is celebrated annually. In 2024 it falls on Sunday. Read about the history and traditions of this day, as well as the most notorious murders of Russian journalists in Izvestia.

History of the Day of Remembrance of Fallen Journalists, celebrated on December 15

Journalism is one of the most interesting, but also dangerous professions. According to data on the SZhR website, up to 20 journalists are killed in Russia every year. And most of the attacks on correspondents occur precisely because of the specifics of their work.

For the first time the memory of journalists was honored in 1991 after the tragedy in Yugoslavia, which claimed the lives of two employees of Central Television (CT): correspondent Viktor Nogin and cameraman Gennady Kurenny. The car in which the journalists were traveling was fired upon by Serbian militants.

Three years later, Dmitry Kholodov, a 27-year-old correspondent for Moskovsky Komsomolets, who was investigating the illegal arms trade in Chechnya, was killed. He was killed on the job in a bomb explosion in the Moscow newsroom. In March 1995, a year after this high-profile murder, Vladislav Listyev, a journalist and the first general director of ORT, was shot dead in the entryway of his own house, becoming the personification of national television in the 1990s.

In the 2000s, this list was completed by Novaya Gazeta journalists Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead in the elevator of her home in central Moscow, Igor Dominikov, Viktor Popkov, Yuri Shchekochikhin, Anastasia Baburova (in 2008, the journalist worked in the editorial office of Izvestia), and Forbes editor-in-chief Paul Khlebnikov.

One of the most tragic years for Russian journalism was 2014. Channel One cameraman Anatoly Klyan, Rossiya Segodnya special photo correspondent Andrei Stenin, Rossiya TV correspondent and sound engineer Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin were killed while covering the events in southeastern Ukraine. All of them were posthumously awarded the Order of Courage.

Another high-profile killing of Russian journalists took place in the Central African Republic (CAR) in 2018. Journalist Orkhan Dzhemal, documentary filmmaker Alexander Rastorguyev and cameraman Kirill Radchenko, who arrived in the country on a tourist visa to shoot a documentary about the activities of private military companies (PMCs) in the republic, were shot dead in a militant attack.

A series of contract killings marked the years 2022 and 2023. During this period, political scientist and journalist Daria Dugina died at the hands of Ukrainian terrorists. An explosive device went off in the girl's car when she was returning from a festival in the Moscow region. The next victim of terrorists was military correspondent Vladlen Tatarsky. A bomb exploded in his hands during a creative evening in a St. Petersburg cafe.

The deaths of journalists are also reported in 2024. In November, Yulia Kuznetsova, editor-in-chief of Narodnaya Gazeta, was killed in Kursk Region after a Ukrainian drone attack. Before that, in April, Izvestia military correspondent Semyon Eremin was killed in a drone attack while filming a report in the Special Military Operation (SMO) zone.

Events on the Day of Remembrance of Fallen Journalists on December 15

Traditionally, on the Day of Remembrance of Journalists who lost their lives in the performance of their professional duty and in the name of freedom of speech, their family members, colleagues, government officials and public figures gather at the Central House of Journalists in Moscow.

Commemorative actions are held at the graves and places of death of journalists. Participants bring flowers and light candles in memory of the dead. Major meetings and international conferences are organized in leading media outlets to discuss the safety of media workers in conflict zones. The topics of compliance with international law in this area are also raised.

However, despite the fact that journalists are civilians, their rights are not always respected. In early November, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in a statement marking the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists that more than 893 media workers have been killed in the past decade, while 86% of crimes go unpunished.

Such crimes are often motivated by reports on organized crime, terrorism, the situation in armed conflict zones, corruption and other socially important issues.

Earlier, Izvestia reported that Russia rejected the report of the UNESCO director general on the safety of journalists, which did not mention the dead Russians.