This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Ukraine: journalists targeted and in danger, warn top rights experts

Journalists in Ukraine have been targeted and continue to face unprecedented dangers carrying out their work in the wake of the Russian invasion, top independent rights experts said on Wednesday.

The alert from UN-appointed independent rights experts cited “numerous reports” that journalists have been “targeted, tortured, kidnapped, attacked and killed, or refused safe passage” from cities and regions under siege.

Latest UN data indicates that seven journalists have been confirmed killed in Ukraine since the Russian invasion on 24 February; the last time so many media professionals lost their lives in Ukraine was in 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea.

They also rejected the European Union’s recent decision to ban two Russian media companies as “disproportionate”, adding that this move had been used “as a pretext…for (the) additional closure of independent media outlets” in Russia.

“Promoting access to diverse and verifiable information, including ensuring access to free, independent and pluralistic media, is a more effective response to disinformation,” they said.

They called on Russia “to fully implement its international human rights obligations, including by respecting, promoting and protecting the freedom to seek, receive and impart information…and by ensuring a safe working environment for independent media, journalists”, and civil society groups.

Soul diva Dionne Warwick joins UNHCR and TikTok, in boost for refugee solidarity

Staying with Ukraine, as latest data showed that more than 5.6 million people have now fled the country since the war started, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has launched a music campaign to promote solidarity with displaced people everywhere.

Together with TikTok and music legend Dionne Warwick, UNHCR is calling for safe and legal access to asylum for all, backed up by live concerts from artists all over the world, that’ll be shared online.

Ms. Warwick’s song, What The World Needs Now, provided the inspiration behind the campaign’s name, and renews a historic partnership with the singer that goes back to 1968.

At that time there were fewer than four million refugees but today there are well over 85 million displaced globally.

“There has never been a more important time to stand in solidarity and show support for people around the world who have been forced to flee from their homes,” Ms. Warwick said.

WHO warns of worsening obesity ‘epidemic’ in Europe

As new data from the World Health Organization indicated that Europe is in the grip of a worsening obesity “epidemic”, UN workers on the other side of the world have highlighted solutions to unhealthy diets in Fiji.

According to the UN health agency, nearly two thirds of adults and almost one in three children are either overweight or obese in Europe.

Estimates suggest these conditions cause more than 1.2 million deaths annually, while obesity alone also increases the risk of developing more than a dozen cancers, cardiovascular diseases, and type 2 diabetes.

In Fiji, where unhealthy eating is also responsible for a growing number of non-communicable diseases, an innovative smartphone app is already helping thousands of Fijians to eat better.

The free app, whose name “My Kanu” translates as “Food” in Fiji’s indigenous iTaukei language, helps users to calculate how nutritious what they are eating is – and how many calories it contains.

The app – which has been developed by the Fijian Health Ministry along with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), also encourages people to grow their own food; with sufficient funding, the aim is to customize it to at least a dozen other Pacific island nations.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.