An Irish journalist killed alongside a Ukrainian colleague when their Fox News team came under fire near Kyiv paid “a terrible price” for his love of “truth telling”, the congregation at his funeral mass has heard.
Pierre Zakrzewski, 55, a cameraman and Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova, 24, died in gunfire earlier this month in Horenka, on the north-west outskirts of the Ukrainian capital. The British correspondent Benjamin Hall was injured in the attack.
Ireland’s foreign affairs minister, Simon Coveney, and aides-de-camp representing the president, Michael Higgins, and the taoiseach, Micheál Martin, attended the mass as did diplomats representing the US, Ukrainian, Polish and French embassies.
“Truth-telling is a work of love, and love always comes at a price, and what a terrible price,” Father Kieran Dunne told the congregation in Dublin on Tuesday.
Zakrzewski is one of 12 journalists killed since the Russian invasion began, with 10 others injured, according to Iryna Venediktova, Ukraine’s prosecutor general. “Revealing the truth about Putin’s aggression is getting increasingly risky and dangerous,” she said.
Several speakers paid tribute to Zakrzewski’s colleague Kuvshynova.
Zakrzewski’s cousin Krzys said: “Lord, we pray that you protect media personnel and journalists who stand up for the truth by speaking the truth. Enable them to be the voice of the voiceless and give a face to the faceless,” said Zakrzewski’s cousin, Krzys.
Tim Santhouse, a Fox News producer, said Zakrzewski was “one of the main reasons” he had joined the broadcaster, impressed by his steely determination to get through customs with his large pack of camera equipment and give voice to the voiceless, bringing news from Afghanistan and other war zones to a worldwide audience.
“He appreciated the life others lead and considered things from their point of view, especially those who were in his viewfinder,” he said.
As a war photographer, Zakrzewski covered conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria for Fox, according to a memo sent to employees by Suzanne Scott, the chief executive of Fox News Media, after his death.
His brother Stas told how “Pierre had refused to be constrained by a traditional education and instead chose to teach himself about the world and politics through travel” to Europe in his teens, and then beyond, to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India where his photography interests dovetailed into journalism.
He was “highly inspirational to his friends and family” and taught people “to think outside the boundaries”, his brother said.
