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Melissa Harris-Perry: Last month, US chairman of Joint Chief of Staff General Mark Millie estimated that Russia and Ukraine have suffered at least 100,000 military casualties each since the Russian invasion began.

On Monday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reported more than 17,000 documented Ukrainian civilian casualties. Civilian suffering undoubtedly is going to rise as Russian bombing continues to target and destroy key infrastructure supplying heat and water to Ukrainians, even as the coldest months of winter approach.

Still Ukraine fights back, launching its most aggressive attack yet earlier this week, firing drones into Russian military bases. 10 months into this deadly conflict, it's still challenging to access accurate information about what is happening and how it's affecting ordinary people, which is precisely why Galina Timchenko's work is so crucial. Back in 2014, Timchenko, a Russian journalist, told the truth about Russia's violent annexation of Crimea. She was fired, and along with dozens of her colleagues she fled to Latvia where she continues to write and report truths the Russian government does not want told. Earlier this year, the Committee to Protect Journalists honored her with the Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award.

Galina Timchenko: This award is so precious to me and to all of the Meduza team. This award gives me a feeling that journalism and freedom of speech and freedom of the press are still our common values, and something we can still hope for in future.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Can you help us to understand the broad outlines of the current situation for Russian journalists?

Galina Timchenko: I know it's easy to understand, just imagine that the whole industry was destroyed in recent year. Before the war, we have more or less free internet media market. Now there are a very few media who did not stop broadcasting and unfortunately almost all of journalists were forced to leave Russia, because since the war started, Russia imposed the media censorship and promised from 2 up to 15 years in prison for every journalist for gathering information about army, gathering information or publishing about political situation in Russia. Even if you want to call this so-called military operation a war, you would be punished and you'll go to prison up to two years.

Melissa Harris-Perry: I want you to say more about this notion that simply using the language of war is itself a crime punishable by imprisonment.

Galina Timchenko: Russian Parliament state Duma imposed special laws prohibiting using words war or something about war. They allow journalists only to say, "Special military operation." The most disgusting things that Russian regulator prohibited for journalists to use any sources of information despite the official information from the Minister of Defense, so if you use any other source of information, for example, from the battlefield, from Ukraine, even from civilians, you are conducting a crime. There is no freedom of speech in Russia anymore at all.

Melissa Harris-Perry: What effect does that have for the Russian people being able to understand what is happening in Ukraine?

Galina Timchenko: I do not want to speak about all Russian people, but Meduza still is the biggest independent media we still have despite of blocking, we were blocked a week after the war started. Now, despite of the fact that we were blocked, we still have millions of readers inside Russia. According to our last statistics, more than 15 million unique users a month read Meduza, and the average of using of our mobile application is 29 times a month, so every day millions of Russians read Meduza and could still receive the reliable information about the war. Unfortunately, according to the last poll, more than half of Russian citizens use TV as a main source of information. All of the TV are full of propaganda, and they are totally under Kremlin control.

Melissa Harris-Perry: You said that if you use any source other than the official government source, if you're a Russian journalist, then you're committing a crime. What are the sources that you all use? What is the work that you all are doing?

Galina Timchenko: Unfortunately when the war started and these military law censorship was imposed we had to evacuate all of our staff writers from Russia. It was a vital threat for them, so we evacuated them and now they are all in European Union, but we still have more than 100 freelancers or contributor writers inside Russia. We do continue reporting from Russia with so-called proxy reporting. For example, our journalists from European Union gathers information or make some calls and these anonymous journalist inside Russia visited places, events asking people about the situation. It's like a mosaic. It's very tough, but still we have more than 100 journalists who are working with us on the anonymous conditions.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Talk to me about what it means to be a journalist in exile.

Galina Timchenko: We are very much experienced with this, because we left Russia eight years ago. It's some kind of fan effect, but it was connected with the first aggression against Ukraine in 2014. We covered Crimea annexation and Donbas conflict. I was fired because of covering the Ukrainian events. We are very much experienced in exile. I used to say that we spent night time in Riga, and actually we are living according to the time zone of Moscow and St. Petersburg. For more than seven years, our team was split by two. In Riga we had back office, our development team, our designers, and for the editors, and almost all of our journalists had been working from the ground, from Russia.

Now we have no possibility of direct reporting from Russia, but still we're trying to report. At the same time, we have our reporters in Ukraine. This time it's very tough for Russian reporters to enter Ukraine, because we are an aggressor country, but thanks to Ukraine authorities and to my journalists, we still have reporters in Ukraine. The most valuable fact, and I used to say that, but I want to put your attention on this fact, that this war, we call it online war. In a minute, in a second, we could see what is happening at the battlefield, but the main thing is that Ukraine from the very beginning prohibited male Russian journalists of entering the country, so only female journalists report from the battlefield. We see this war through the eyes of women.

Melissa Harris-Perry: What difference does that make?

Galina Timchenko: It's a huge difference, because previously I worked for Russian business newspaper called Kommersant, and we had so-called war correspondents, male correspondents. They are all about how does Army do their job so-called. All female reporters, it's all about civilian casualties. It's about life and death. It's about kids and women. It's about the horrific violations of human rights. For example, my correspondent [unintelligible 00:09:26] she left the city of [unintelligible 00:09:29] at the time when [unintelligible 00:09:32] was besieged by Russian troops.

She left city with the last group of civilians, so they are all about human touch and about human lives. This is our main goal. The main idea of Putin's propaganda is to prove that the war is far, far away, that nothing important happened. We're trying constantly to put the attention of our readers that the war is near. The war is about every Russian citizen. That this responsibility and this guilt will be with us for years, for decades. These female reporters, they put attention to the matter of life, to the kids, womens who were raped, who were tortured. It's all about life, not about army and death.

Melissa Harris-Perry: That was Galina Timchenko, an exiled Russian journalist, and CEO of Meduza. She's also a winner of the 2022 Gwen Eiffel Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

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Melissa Harris-Perry: Welcome back to The Takeaway. I'm Melissa Harris-Perry. During my conversation with Galina Timchenko, the exiled Russian journalist, I asked why she continues to work as a journalist despite the risks.

Galina Timchenko: It's just our job to be done, and that's all. I do not like to think about mission and all these highbrow phrases, but in Russia, all the civilian institutions are destroyed now. We have no independent court, we have no legislative power, we have almost a failed state, and only fourth power. Journalism is still alive. We are trying to do our jobs despite all odds. We just have job to be done.

Melissa Harris-Perry: This dogged willingness to do the work in the face of danger characterized the commitment of Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian American journalist who was killed in May while she was reporting in the occupied West Bank for Al Jazeera.

Speaker 1: [Arabic language]

Melissa Harris-Perry: This week, Al Jazeera submitted a formal request to the International Criminal Court to, "investigate, and prosecute those responsible." Abu Akleh's niece, Lina, spoke at a press conference on Tuesday.

Lina: There is overwhelming evidence from multiple eyewitnesses over a dozen of investigations that Shireen was targeted and killed by an Israeli soldier.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Shireen was shot in the head during an Israeli military raid. After an investigation, Israeli officials said there was a, "high possibility that Israeli soldier was responsible, but called her death accidental." Al Jazeera's filing with the ICC alleges that the Israeli military directly fired at Shireen Abu Akleh, and her colleagues. Al Jazeera says its investigation has uncovered new evidence from eyewitnesses and video footage, some of which can be seen in a recent documentary.

Speaker 2: About 25 seconds later, here they are walking with Shraddha,and Morshed in Gaza up the street all in their press jackets, just past the spot, where Shireen had a view of the military.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Now, Israel has not cooperated with ICC investigations in the past. The military and Ministry of Defense did not respond to our request for comment by airtime. Al Jazeera claims that Abu Aklehs's killing is, "part of a wider campaign to target and silence Al Jazeera." They also point to the May 2021 bombing of the network's Gaza Strip offices by Israeli forces. Indeed, journalists working in occupied Palestine faced dangers daily, including harassment and threats from both governments. Organizations like the International Federation of Journalists have noted the Palestinian journalists are frequently targeted by Israeli forces.

According to Reporters Without Borders, at least 30 Palestinian journalists have been killed by Israeli forces since the year 2000. Many have been detained and arrested while working. They've seen their equipment destroyed, and some have been seriously injured while covering protests when Israeli soldiers used live rounds. It was a reality Shireen Abu Akleh knew all too well, but she did not let it stop her from working.

Shireen Abu Akleh: [speaking Arabic]

Melissa Harris-Perry: She's saying here in Arabic, "Sometimes you cover certain stories in which the challenges are emotional, and sometimes they're physical. How do you protect yourself, and stay safe?

Shireen: [speaking Arabic] Many thanks to Mary Steffenhagen for producing this segment, and continuing to follow developments in this story closely.

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