Is the truth worth a life? A cherished Ukrainian journalist who fearlessly reported from Ukraine's occupied territories was taken by Russian forces last year. Last week, she was reported dead in custody.
War reporter 'dead in a Russian jail'
Is the truth worth a life? A cherished Ukrainian journalist who fearlessly reported from Ukraine's occupied territories was taken by Russian forces last year. Last week, she was reported dead in custody.
"The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death."
So spoke SocratesConsidered by some to be the greatest philosopher in history, Socrates is credited with developing the whole notion of critical reason. almost 2,500 years ago in 399BC. He was speaking in his own defence against a jury of hundreds of Athenian men on the charges of "corrupting the youth" and "not believing in the gods in whom the city believes".
The trial lasted just a day. The court ordered the death penalty by drinking hemlockA highly poisonous plant of the parsley family. for the old philosopher. And though his friends, followers, students and all of the citizens of Athens expected him to flee his sentence, as was custom, Socrates chose to stay and die for his beliefs.
"No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death," he observed in one of the concluding remarks of his defence.
He might have been one of the first to sacrifice his life for the sake of truth. But he was by no means the last. In 1431, France's patron saint Joan of Arc, just 19 years old, was burned at the stake for heresyA belief that contradicts the accepted (usually religious) view. and refusing to submit to the church. In 1600, Italy's Giordano Bruno was similarly executed for refusing to recantTo say that you no longer believe something. his "heretical" scientific investigations.
We are hardly short on startling bravery today. Earlier this year, it was reported that one in 10 journalists and reporters in Gaza have been killed since Israel launched its military attacks last year.1 At least 15 journalists and media workers have been killed covering Russia's relentless war in Ukraine.
Yet thousands remain on the ground, so committed to the cause of truth that they would risk their lives to bring it to light. Victoria Roshchyna, a Ukrainian journalist abducted by Russian forces in August 2023, was one of those reporters.
She disappeared while travelling to Ukraine's occupied territories. But her family heard no news of her for over a year, before a letter from the Russian Defence Ministry confirmed that she had died in captivity on 19 September.
Roshchyna focused on human rights, crime and war, and wanted to bring power to account. She was a 2022 Courage in Journalism Award recipient described by the International Women's Media Foundation as "an intrepid witness to history".
It brings to mind one of the most famous anti-regime journalists of all time. Anna Politkovskaya, an investigative journalist from Russia, repeatedly risked her life to report on human rights abuses in the war in Chechnya and Putin's authoritarian government.
A fierce and prominent critic of the Kremlin, she was threatened, poisoned, abducted and ultimately murdered at her home in Moscow - on Putin's birthday.2 Her desk at Russia's Novaya Gazeta remains a memorial to this day. No other reporter has occupied her seat since her death.
Last year saw an alarming spike in journalists killed in conflict zones.3 Between 1990 and 2020, more than 2,600 reporters were killed around the world, and experts estimate that most journalists were killed in reprisal for their writing rather than due to the normal hazards of war.
It is hard to conceive of the courage that drives journalists like Roshchyna to put their lives at risk to unearth the truth. But it is easy to see that their sacrifice should be remembered. As Lesya Ukrainka, one of Ukraine's national writers, once wrote: "It is from the hands of death that people get immortality."
Is the truth worth a life?
Yes: By letting the world know what is really happening in conflict zones around the world, journalists and reporters prevent countless deaths. They hold bloodthirsty regimes to account and prevent the worst war crimes from taking place. It is worth risking one life to save many.
No: Journalists should not be faced with a decision between truth and life. Telling a story, even if it is a true one, is not worth suffering, death and decades of mourning.
Or... There is no single version of the truth. People can spend, and even sacrifice, their lives reporting on important issues. But there is always another side to the story.
Keywords
Socrates - Considered by some to be the greatest philosopher in history, Socrates is credited with developing the whole notion of critical reason.
Hemlock - A highly poisonous plant of the parsley family.
Heresy - A belief that contradicts the accepted (usually religious) view.
Recant - To say that you no longer believe something.
War reporter ‘dead in a Russian jail’
Glossary
Socrates - Considered by some to be the greatest philosopher in history, Socrates is credited with developing the whole notion of critical reason.
Hemlock - A highly poisonous plant of the parsley family.
Heresy - A belief that contradicts the accepted (usually religious) view.
Recant - To say that you no longer believe something.