France, July 9 -- Journalist Ekaterina Barabash was under house arrest in Moscow for 'telling the truth about the war in Ukraine'. Rather than risk a decade in Putin's prisons she chose to flee, crossing the forests of Belarus alone. Having been in Paris for two months now, she spoke to RFI about leaving everything behind and building a new life, and why she had no choice but to defend the dignity of her profession.

Barabash still finds it hard to believe she's living in Paris. "I ask my son sometimes, do you really think that now I live in Paris?" she says, speaking from the offices of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) - the press freedom NGO that helped organise her extradition from Moscow. "For me it still feels a bit unreal. It's somethi...