What’s happening in Ukraine is a special military operation, not a war. Its aim is to liberate the country from a neo-Nazi-dominated government whose defenders use children as human shields. Vladimir Putin is a hero, standing up to Western powers obsessed with Russia’s destruction.

This is the story that most Russians have been getting from the state TV channels that dominate the country’s airwaves. For everyone’s sake, Russians need better information — which is why the international community must support the dwindling number of journalists who, at great personal risk, are trying to provide it, either in Russia or while reporting on Russia from abroad.

Even before the war, committing journalism in Putin’s regime had become a hazardous task. There was almost nowhere to work: One after another, independent venues had shut down or otherwise succumbed to Kremlin pressure — and the few that remained operated on a knife’s edge, sometimes from bases set up outside the country, reaching a tiny fraction of the audience that state television commanded.