Welcome to The Fix’s weekly news digest! Every week, we bring you important news stories from the world of media – and try to put them in a wider context.

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The grim toll of journalists killed while covering the war in Ukraine rose this week as cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra Kuvshinova, who were working for Fox News, were killed near Kyiv. Their colleague Benjamin Hall was wounded and taken to the hospital. 

They follow previous killings of Ukrainian cameraman Yevhenii Sakun killed two weeks ago when Russia shelled a TV tower in Kyiv, as well as documentary filmmaker Brent Renaud, who was working for Time magazine and killed on March 13th in the city of Irpin outside of Kyiv. 

Ukrainian authorities estimate that at least 35 journalists have suffered from the Russian forces. The list includes those wounded while covering the war, as well as Ukrainian journalist Viktor Dudar who went on to volunteer in the armed forces and was killed in combat. 

More from The Fix: Russian forces target journalists, civilians

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Russia continues to block remaining independent outlets. Earlier this week, Russian authorities blocked the BBC and promised it’s “just the beginning of response actions to an information war unleashed by the West.”

The media story from Russia that drew most headlines this week is Marina Ovsyannikova, an editor at state-controlled Channel One TV channel, interrupting the channel’s broadcast with an anti-war poster. She was arrested and fined 30,000 roubles (€260) – “a relatively light sentence for an act of protest that shocked Russian television viewers and earned plaudits from western leaders”, as The Guardian puts it. While this protest isn’t likely to have long-term consequences, it does make for good TV.

More from The Fix: Are independent Russian media gone for good?

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In the UK, the government is planning to clamp down on “Strategic lawsuits against public participation”, or SLAPPs, a tool frequently used for legal intimidation of reporters.

SLAPPs are defamation suits filed by rich and influential people in cases where claimants know they are unlikely to win but use the lawsuits to “dissuade journalists from reporting on a controversial story by making it as costly and time-consuming as possible.”

As The Guardian notes, top government officials in the UK “underlined [this week] the government’s intention to stop the use of the courts by Russian oligarchs to intimidate journalists.” That’s become particularly relevant in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent reporting on oligarchs. 

The counteraction imposed by the government might include introducing a requirement for claimants to show “actual malice” by a defendant, as well as limiting the costs claimants can recover.

More from The Fix’s newsletter: Fighting legal intimidation of reporters 

Bonus — Five more stories you might want to check out:

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