CPJ urges Russia to drop charges against journalists accused of ‘illegal’ border crossing

The criminal cases have been initiated against Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Europe correspondent Kathryn Diss and ABC camera operator Fletcher Yeung, both U.S. citizens, as well as Romanian freelance journalist Mircea Barbu, who was on assignment for news website HotNews. Russian authorities allege that the journalists crossed into Sudzha, a western Russian town in the Kursk region where Ukrainian authorities launched an incursion, on August 6, without Russian permission.

“These criminal charges against foreign journalists are a blatant attempt to intimidate the press and restrict the flow of information about the Russia-Ukraine war,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in Warsaw. “We urge Russian authorities to immediately drop all charges against Kathryn Diss, Fletcher Yeung, and Mircea Barbu, and to stop treating journalism as a crime.”

In a statement, ABC said its reporters had not done anything illegal, since they were reporting “from occupied territory in a war zone in full compliance with international law. Their reporting was done in the interests of keeping the public fully informed on a story of international importance.”

Barbu also condemned the charges on social media, saying journalists are protected under international law and that Russia’s actions are a threat to the freedom of expression of any journalists who risk reporting the truth during armed conflicts.

Since August 17, Russian authorities have opened similar charges against a total of 12 foreign journalists reporting from the Kursk region.  

The journalists, who face up to five years in prison upon extradition to Russia or being detained within the country, include: Deutsche Welle correspondent Nick Connolly; Ukrainian national TV channel “1+1” correspondent Natalia Nahorna; CNN chief international security correspondent Nick Paton Walsh; independent Ukrainian broadcaster Hromadske reporters Olesya Borovyk and Diana Butsko; and Italian public broadcaster RAI journalists Stefania Battistini and Simone Traini.

Russian authorities have since added all seven to their wanted list.

On August 19, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that Russian law enforcement authorities were studying “the facts related to the actions” of unnamed Washington Post journalists in Sudzha.

CPJ emailed the FSB for comment but did not receive a reply.