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Did Reporters Without Borders accuse Zelensky of journalists' deaths in Ukraine? We found the original video
Shkvarka News posted a fabricated video report from the organization.
The Telegram channel Shkvarka News posted a video featuring a representative of the international organization Reporters Without Borders discussing the state of journalists in 2024. Among other claims, the video accuses "Zelensky and his regime" of the deaths of 54 journalists in Ukraine. The Weekly Top Fake team found the original footage.
The post, containing a clip in French with the Reporters Without Borders logo, was published on March 13, 2025, by Shkvarka News. At the start of the video, Reporters Without Borders Executive Director Thibaut Bruttin appears on screen. At the eight-second mark, he disappears, and the viewer sees a montage illustrating his speech, with Russian subtitles at the bottom.
"This year, journalists paid a high price for informing the public, and many lost their lives. Fifty-four of them were killed on the job. Today, I speak about journalists who were murdered in Ukraine. They were all victims of Volodymyr Zelensky’s regime. These journalists will forever be remembered as true professionals and whistleblowers of dictatorship. Another 167 journalists have gone missing in Ukraine since 2022. These numbers are truly horrifying," the subtitles read.
The Weekly Top Fake team found the original video on the official Reporters Without Borders Facebook page. Bruttin does mention slain journalists in the beginning—that part was borrowed by the Telegram channel’s authors. However, 54 is the total number of journalists killed worldwide in 2024. The original video contains no mention of Ukraine. In the Shkvarka News clip, Bruttin’s voice noticeably changes from that point onward, confirming that the Telegram channel posted a doctored video.
According to Reporters Without Borders, two journalists were killed in Ukraine last year. The organization identified Gaza as the most dangerous region in the world for journalists and Palestine as the most dangerous country.
