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Working conditions of a French journalist in Russia
Luc Lacroix, who has covered Russia for 4 years for France Télévisions, explains the working conditions of a French journalist in Russia. – (franceinfo)
Journalist Luc Lacroix, who has covered Russia for France Télévisions for more than four years, explains his working conditions in Vladimir Putin’s country.
Luc Lacroix is one of France Télévisions’ special correspondents in Russia. He follows the war in Ukraine and recently produced a report for the program “Envoyé Spécial” entitled “Russia sick of its war”. It is a dive into a closed country in the footsteps of the fighters who have been waging Putin’s war for two years. For the first time, the France Télévisions camera was able to enter a hospital where Russian soldiers are being treated, wounded people that the Kremlin would like not to see. The team also met with families of fighters. Some support the Russian offensive in Ukraine, others do not.
But what room for maneuver do we really have at France Télévisions to tell what is happening in Russia, from Russia? Passing through Paris, Luc Lacroix responds: “Today in Russia, work on the ground – filming – is constrained, but it is more essential than ever to tell what is happening there and what Russians think, whatever their opinion.”
“The first obstacle when working in Russia is convincing people to talk to us because we are Western media.”
Luc Lacroix, special correspondent for France Télévisions in Moscowat franceinfo
“What I explain to them is that we have the right to work, that we are accredited with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But it is true that there is permanent pressure on journalists, including journalists. foreign journalists”continues the reporter.
“You must not be naive”
Luc Lacroix cites as an example the arrest in March 2023 of Evan Gershkovich, American journalist at Wall Street Journal. Accused of espionage, the 32-year-old reporter risks up to 20 years in prison. His detention was continued on February 20. “Some of my colleagues were, for example, followed in reportingsays Luc Lacroix. It never happened to me, or at least I didn’t realize it. But we must not be naive. The Russian services have the possibility at any time of knowing what we are doing.”
“There is a law in Russia that punishes with prison the act of denigrating the Russian army. This forces us, we journalists, to go back to basics: to only tell what we see or what we are told .”
Luc Lacroix, special correspondent for France Télévisions in Moscowat franceinfo
And to continue: “And then we tell our viewers how we work. For example, if we are with the Russian army, we say so. If we couldn’t ask a question, we tell it.”
Luc Lacroix concludes by evoking “ethical red lines” : “We never show a report before it is broadcast, or we never tell something false. In this case, we would prefer not to do a report at all.”