MOSCOW, September 11 (RIA Novosti) - Journalists, who died in southeastern Ukraine on Thursday, were honored with posthumous World Without Nazism award, which was established by international human rights organization of the same name.
World Without Nazism award in the Freedom of Speech nomination is awarded to the mass media representatives, who focus on anti-fascism movements' operations and help to fight against the rebirth of Nazism. This year, the award was posthumously given to Andrea Rocchelli, Andrei Mironov, Anton Voloshin, Igor Kornelyuk and Anatoly Klyan. During the ceremony, a minute of silence has been observed in memory of Rossiya Segodnya photojournalist Andrei Stenin, who will be honored with the award on the next ceremony.
Last week, Rossiya Segodnya Director General Dmitry Kiselev announced that according to information from the Russian Investigative Committee, Stenin, who went missing in Ukraine in early August, died about a month ago near Donetsk when the car he was traveling in while on an editorial assignment was shot at and torched on a highway just outside the city.
In June, cameraman from Russia's Channel-1 television station, Anatoly Klyan, was killed by gunfire while traveling by bus with a group of refugees outside the city of Donetsk.
Earlier, two employees of Russia's state-run VGTRK media holding, reporter Igor Kornelyuk and sound engineer Anton Voloshin lost their lives in a mortar attack near the Ukrainian city of Luhansk.
Late May, Russian human rights activist Andrei Mironov and Italian photojournalist Andrea Rocchelli died near the city of Slaviansk.
Since Kiev launched its special military operation against independence supporters in eastern Ukraine in April, over 2,500 people, including civilians, children and journalists on professional duty have died in the region.
The World Without Nazism award ceremony took place this year for the first time, but from now on it will become annual. Its main goal is to support major initiatives in fighting against fascism across the globe.
