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October 12, 2024 – Russia –
In a stark escalation of Russia’s control over war coverage, a court in Kursk on October 11, 2024, issued an arrest warrant in absentia for CNN’s Chief International Security Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh. The court accused him of illegally entering Russian territory by reporting from Ukrainian-held Sudzha in the Kursk region following Ukraine’s August incursion. Authorities have requested his extradition, declaring he should be arrested “on Russian territory or upon extradition”.
The move builds on a criminal case opened in August 2024, with Russia’s FSB charging Paton Walsh and Ukrainian reporters Olesia Borovyk and Diana Butsko with illegal border crossing. The charges carry up to five years in prison and include placement on Interpol’s wanted list. The FSB explicitly linked the charges to his reportage conducted alongside Ukrainian forces.
Paton Walsh is a veteran correspondent, formerly with Channel 4 News and The Guardian, now reporting for CNN. His coverage of the Sudzha incursion was one among several Western and Ukrainian journalists’ reports prompting similar Russian responses. Italy’s RAI and France 24 journalists, among others, have faced criminal proceedings and pre-emptive arrest orders after reporting in contested border zones.
The Kremlin’s actions reflect Russia’s expanding censorship regime—legalized under 2022 wartime laws criminalizing “discrediting” the armed forces and disseminating “unreliable information”—which has driven many foreign outlets out of the country. By branding standard international reporting as a criminal act, Russian authorities hope to inhibit coverage of Ukraine’s battlefield advances.
CNN has not publicly responded to the warrant, but similar cases have sparked condemnation from press freedom advocates, who decry Russia’s strategy of using its legal system to silence or intimidate journalists. These developments come amidst intensifying military actions in the Kursk region, where Russian and Ukrainian forces continue to clash
Reference –
https://www.dawn.com/news/1864673/russian-court-orders-arrest-of-cnn-reporter
