The ABC has rejected Russian claims two of its journalists acted illegally after they entered the Ukraine-occupied Kursk area.
Europe correspondent Kathryn Diss and digicam operator Fletcher Yeung are accused of “illegally” crossing into Russia from Ukraine on 31 August.
The pair had been escorted by a Ukrainian army unit to Sudzha, a Russian city within the Kursk area, which is now occupied by Ukraine, the ABC reported.
On Friday the Russian information company Tass reported that the Russian Federal Safety Service (FSB), the successor to the Soviet KGB, had “initiated and is investigating criminal cases” in opposition to Diss and Yeung, in addition to Romanian journalist Barbu Mircea, for the crime of “Illegal crossing of Russia’s State Border”.
The crime is punishable by as much as 5 years’ imprisonment, Tass reported.
An ABC spokesperson denied any wrongdoing, claiming that the pair entered Russia legally.
“We reject Russia’s claim that the ABC’s reporters have done anything illegal,” a spokesperson stated.
“They were reporting from occupied territory in a war zone and 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.”
The journalists had been being absolutely supported by the ABC, the spokesperson stated.
Diss and Yeung’s go to was the primary time the broadcaster had entered Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and was the topic of a 4 September report displaying Sudzha’s streets “littered with broken glass, twisted metal and crumbled bricks”.
“Crossing the border here doesn’t just carry the physical risk of being in a war zone; it also means that as individuals we’re unlikely to ever be able to return to Russia,” Diss and Yeung wrote within the piece.
“Moscow has issued red notices with Interpol for several other western journalists it charged with illegally crossing its border days after Ukraine’s invasion.”
The pair be a part of journalists from Italian, German, American and Ukrainian information retailers who’re the topic of ongoing investigations after making comparable journeys into Kursk.
In August, the FSB started investigating Italian journalists Simone Traini and Stefania Battistini; CNN reporter Nick Paton Walsh; Nicholas Simon Connolly, a reporter for the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle; and Ukrainian correspondents Natalya Nagornaya, Olesya Borovik and Diana Butsko, Tass reported.
“In total, since 17 August 2024, criminal cases have been initiated against 12 foreign journalists for the illegal acts in question,” the FSB stated.
Since 2022, Russia has banned greater than 200 Australians from coming into the nation, denying entry “for an indefinite term” to a bunch of journalists and public figures “as part of the Russophobic campaign by the collective West”, authorities said.
Amongst them are the ABC journalists Sarah Ferguson, Isabella Higgins, Emily Clark and Eric Campbell, who’ve all reported on the Ukraine conflict, the ABC reported.
Former prime ministers Tony Abbott and John Howard had been added to the record in June.
