Hromadske International: Babchenko’s ‘murder,’ Kolchenko’s hunger strike, Estonian President

Anti-Kremlin journalist Arkady Babchenko addresses a press conference on May 31, 2018 in Kiev during which he dismissed criticism of cooperating with Ukrainian security services in the staging of his death, a day following his shock reappearance after Ukrainian authorities said he had been shot dead.In an operation that blindsided the world's media, Babchenko made a shock reappearance at a press conference in Kiev on May 31, less than 24 hours after the Ukrainian authorities reported he had been shot dead at his home in a contract-style killing blamed on Russia. / AFP PHOTO / GENYA SAVILOV

Photo by AFP

Truth vs. Security: Ukraine’s SBU Stages Murder of Arkady Babchenko.

He was declared dead, then he was declared alive. The story of Russian opposition journalist Arkady Babchenko’s assassination sent shockwaves around the world. When the Ukrainian Security Service revealed that it was, in fact, a sting operation to expose a Russian ploy to assassinate Babchenko, along with some other people, many sighed with relief. But then another issue was put forward: is a government-staged murder damaging to journalism? We will discuss with Christopher Miller, a correspondent at RFE/RL and Committee to Protect Journalists and Gulliver Cragg, a correspondent at France 24.