On 11 March 2024, Russian independent outlet MediaZona reported that a Russian court had fined Björn Blaschke, a correspondent for the German radio station WDR, on grounds of allegedly “discrediting” the Russian army. The basis of the accusation was unclear, according to MediaZona, who said that both Blaschke and his lawyer did not respond to questions on the case. Blaschke is known to have regularly reported from multiple countries on topics related to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
An employee of a court in Birobijan (in Russia’s Far East region) which reportedly issued the fine was quoted by MediaZona: they said that the journalist was fined 40 thousand rubles, however a different quoted employee could not confirm this. The case was to be examined by a court of appeals in Birobijan, MediaZona was able to confirm based on official court documents published online.
Blaschke is listed by Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a foreign correspondent accredited to work in Russia.
UPDATE: On March 22, the Russian independent online outlet Echo quoted an anonymous source, who offered extra details on the case. According to the source, Blaschke planned to travel across Russia on the Trans-Siberian railway to report on moods in Russian regions ahead of presidential elections scheduled for March 15-17. Security forces, however, forced him out of a train at Birobijan, at the very beginning of his trip. As a result, only the first episode of his planned cycle of reports was published, Echo reported.
According to the source quoted by Echo, Blaschke was then fined for a tweet from 2022, in which he wrote that “the Russian attack on Ukraine [had] made the situation worse” in parts of Africa, as rising fuel and wheat prices had affected Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan (the journalist was in Kenya at the time of writing of the tweet, according to Echo). On March 13, two days after a court fined Blaschke, his employer, the German broadcaster WDR, issued a comment on the case published by the Russian service of Germany’s public broadcaster Deutsche Welle. In its comment, DWR said that “Russian authorities were increasing limitations”, and that “the safety of [its] employees is a main priority”, due to which Blaschke had relocated to Tbilisi and continued to cover Russia and the wider region from there. Echo said that the journalist and his lawyer did not respond to a request for comment sent by the outlet.
UPDATE: On 16 April 2024, independent outlet MediaZona reported that Blaschke had been fined 15 thousand rubles on grounds of “discrediting” the Russian army, despite earlier reports indicating that he was fined 40 thousand rubles.