FSB opens cases against three foreign journalists for reporting from Sudzha

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) has opened criminal cases against two Australian correspondents and a Romanian journalist for alleged illegal border crossing and filming in the Suzha district, reports Mediazona.

The cases target:

• Australia's ABC News correspondents Fletcher Yeung and Kathryn Diss;
• freelancer Mircea Barbu, who reports for the Romanian media outlet HotNews.

All three journalists are suspected of illegally crossing Russia's border in the Kursk region (Part 3 of Article 322 of the Russian Criminal Code).

The prosecution was triggered by the journalists' reports from Sudzha city, Kursk region, following the Ukrainian Armed Forces' incursion aimed to fight back against the aggressor.

The Australian journalists' report from Sudzha came out on ABC News on September 3. "A Ukrainian flag now flies where a Russian one once did. In the town square, images of destroyed Ukrainian cities have been plastered on a destroyed monument of Lenin," the journalists wrote.

Barbu's Sudzha report was released on August 28 on the HotNews YouTube channel.

In August 2024, the Russian FSB opened cases against seven journalists for alleged illegal border crossing and filming in the Suzha district: Kordon.Media journalist Olesya Borovyk; hromadske journalist Diana Butsko; CNN journalist Nick Paton Walsh (USA); RAI journalist Stefania Battistini (Italy); RAI cameraman Simone Traini (Italy); 1+1 reporter Natalia Nahorna (Ukraine); and DW correspondent Nick Connolly.