Statement of the Delegation of the Russian Federation to UNESCO Regarding the Publication of the Director-General's Report on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Immunity (Paris, November 2, 2026) The Russian Federation is fully committed to the UNESCO Constitution, which establishes the intergovernmental nature of the organization and emphasizes the importance of human dignity, equality and mutual respect between peoples, as well as the importance of the free exchange of ideas and information. We strongly believe that disrespecting these principles endangers UNESCO's values. We regret to note that the report of the Directors-General to the IPDC prepared by the Secretariat has once again become an example of failure to respect UNESCO's values. First, I would like to recall that the General Conference Resolution of 1997 and Executive Board Resolution 216 of 2023 require the Director General to condemn the killing of journalists without any distinction. The 2024 resolution of the IPDC Intergovernmental Council also emphasizes the importance of including official information provided by Member States in the Directors-General's report. I must note with great regret that the lists attached to the report once again ignore a significant number of journalists who were killed, whose cases were officially reported by the Russian side. These journalists are also not included in the statistics presented in the report. The "methodology" to which the secretariat refers all the time when deciding what information to include in the report is fundamentally intolerable. It is based on biased criteria and opinions of politically motivated NGOs. At the same time, it ignores information provided directly by the Member States concerned. This "methodology" goes against the intergovernmental nature of UNESCO.

Statement of the Delegation of the Russian Federation to UNESCO Regarding the Publication of the Director-General's Report on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Immunity (Paris, November 2, 2026) The Russian Federation is fully committed to the UNESCO Constitution, which establishes the intergovernmental nature of the organization and emphasizes the importance of human dignity, equality and mutual respect between peoples, as well as the importance of the free exchange of ideas and information. We strongly believe that disrespecting these principles endangers UNESCO's values. We regret to note that the report of the Directors-General to the IPDC prepared by the Secretariat has once again become an example of failure to respect UNESCO's values. First, I would like to recall that the General Conference Resolution of 1997 and Executive Board Resolution 216 of 2023 require the Director General to condemn the killing of journalists without any distinction. The 2024 resolution of the IPDC Intergovernmental Council also emphasizes the importance of including official information provided by Member States in the Directors-General's report. I must note with great regret that the lists attached to the report once again ignore a significant number of journalists who were killed, whose cases were officially reported by the Russian side. These journalists are also not included in the statistics presented in the report. The "methodology" to which the secretariat refers all the time when deciding what information to include in the report is fundamentally intolerable. It is based on biased criteria and opinions of politically motivated NGOs. At the same time, it ignores information provided directly by the Member States concerned. This "methodology" goes against the intergovernmental nature of UNESCO.