It will be necessary to “establish the circumstances and responsibilities” of his death, reacts the secretary general of Reporters Without Borders

It will be necessary “establish circumstances and responsibilities” of the death of the French journalist Arman Soldin in Ukraine, reacts Tuesday, May 9 on franceinfo Christophe Deloire, secretary general of the NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Video coordinator of AFP in Ukraine, the 32-year-old man was killed by Russian rocket fire in Chassiv Yar, a town in Donetsk Oblast, in the east of the country.

>>> War in Ukraine: French journalist Arman Soldin killed in a rocket strike near Bakhmout

“He was a very young journalist“, deplores Christophe Deloire, “as was Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, killed on May 30, who was also 32“. Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, who worked for BFMTV, was hit by shrapnel during a bombardment.”Three French journalists have already been killed since the start of the Russian aggression“, specifies the secretary general of RSF, “out of 10 journalists in total who were killed in the line of duty in Ukraine“.

These three Frenchmen were all “image reporters, JRIs, whose function is to shoot images and who therefore have to go close to the front, to face a form of danger that sometimes inflicts death“, explains Christophe Deloire. “Fortunately, journalists have the courage to face these dangers, but that does not justify the deliberate shootings they are too often subjected to, nor the firing of rockets or other weapons against civilians, including journalists..”

The secretary general of RSF stresses that AFP, “one of the largest news agencies in the world“seen since the 1960s”more than 20 of its collaborators killed in the exercise of their functions“: “It illustrates how insecure journalists can be on war grounds and others who aren’t supposed to be..”

Conducting an investigation into the death of the journalist will be difficult as “the Ukrainian investigation services are absolutely overwhelmed“, recognizes Christophe Deloire. But RSF “tries to bring his stone to the building“under these similar circumstances,”and there are the investigations that can be done with international help“, he underlines: “There is a need for a form of solidarity vis-à-vis Ukraine on this issue“.