Austrian reporter sues Ukrainian officials over entry ban, vows to bring issue to ‘diplomatic level’

A journalist from a leading Austrian broadcaster has filed a legal case against the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) after he was barred from entering the country over border violation and “anti-Ukrainian propaganda.”

Christian Wehrschutz, who was banned from entering Ukraine in early March, brought an appeal to the Kiev court on Tuesday.

The journalist was covering events in Ukraine for the major Austrian broadcaster ORF since the US-backed coup in 2014 and reported from the frontlines in the warzone in Eastern Ukraine. As the ban was announced authorities in Kiev dubbed him “a threat to national security” and accused him of border violation and peddling Kremlin propaganda.

In a Facebook post-Wehrschutz asserted that he did not violate Ukrainian laws adding that the decision reflects the “dissatisfaction from the part of the Ukrainian authorities with his reports.”

The journalist also said he had a permit from the Ukrainian intelligence service SBU to visit the regions uncontrolled by Kiev and stated that his legal team is “ready to solve this issue at the diplomatic level.”

Austria’s top officials are seemingly already on his side as Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl slammed Kiev for an “unacceptable act of censure” and demanded to lift the ban. The country’s Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz, for his part, said his stance is ‘closely coordinated’ with those of the foreign ministry.

It’s been a while since Ukraine’s authorities began to target Wehrschutz. In December 2018 he was refused accreditation to Eastern Ukraine and later wrote an open letter to his broadcaster’s management and the country’s government in which he said he receives death threats.

In 2014 Wehrschutz was voted journalist of the year by his fellow colleagues in Austria for his work in Ukraine.

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