Journalists reporting on the Ukraine crisis must collect evidence of potential war crimes

Now, more than ever, we journalists need to think beyond the duties we have of striving to be part of a media that people can trust – and think about the bigger picture, writes Bel Trew

As a journalist covering conflict, accuracy is key (AFP via Getty)

A body of a teenager, hands bound, shot in the back in the woods near a Russian trench. An underground torture chamber where eight people say they were held and abused below a railway station. Shoppers ripped apart by banned cluster munitions as they bought supplies. Children shelled as they escaped a brutal siege.

Throughout the past six weeks I have spent in Ukraine, on almost every street in every town affected by the Russian invasion, I’ve stumbled across testimonies of likely violations of international law and possible war crimes. It’s bewildering.

As a journalist covering conflict, accuracy is of course key, as is properly documenting and verifying the stories that you are told. But now more than ever, we journalists need to think beyond the duties we have of striving to be part of a media that people can trust – and think about the bigger picture, including potential war crime trials.