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Bayeux Reporters’ Memorial Honors 73 Fallen Journalists, Including Ukraine’s Viktoria Roshchyna
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A new stele has been unveiled at the Bayeux Reporters’ Memorial in France, commemorating 73 journalists who lost their lives in the course of their professional duties over the past year. Among those honored is Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna, who died while in Russian captivity.
The update was announced by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on October 9, which established the memorial in partnership with the city of Bayeux in 2006.
The site serves as a permanent tribute to journalists killed in war zones or deliberately targeted because of their work. Each year, the memorial is updated with the names of reporters who died between June 1 of the previous year and May 31 of the current year. This year’s stele includes names of those who died between June 1, 2024, and June 1, 2025.
RSF Director General Thibaut Bruttin underscored the risks journalists face around the world, noting that those memorialized “were killed for informing us about collusion between authorities and organised crime in Mexico, monarchist riots and their repression in Nepal, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and crimes committed by the Israeli army against the Palestinian population.”
He also remarked that the Bayeux Memorial stands as a solemn reminder that “press freedom is neither given nor guaranteed — it is won.”
One of the names now inscribed on the memorial is that of Viktoria Roshchyna, who had been held by Russian forces since 2023 and died as a result of torture in 2024. Her body, bearing signs of violent death, was returned to Ukraine in February 2025.
The memorial also includes the name of Kazakh opposition journalist Aidos Sadikov, who died following an assassination attempt in central Kyiv in June 2024.
The unveiling ceremony took place in the presence of the victims’ families and colleagues and was held as part of the 32 Bayeux Calvados–Normandy Award, an annual event recognizing excellence in war reporting.
Earlier, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office announced that the head of Detention Center No. 2 in Taganrog, located in Russia’s Rostov region, has been indicted in absentia for the torture and death of Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna.
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