Björn Blaschke

Affiliated media: Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), Journalist (Germany)

Incident date: March 22, 2024

Attack type:

• Short-term detention

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: Mediazona

Location: Russia, Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Birobidzhan

Additional information:

The journalist of the German radio station Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) Björn Blaschke was taken off the train in Birobidzhan on March 11. He was travelling on the Trans-Siberian Railway from Vladivostok to Moscow, preparing a material about the attitude of Russians to the presidential election. A report was drawn up on the journalist under the administrative article on «discrediting» the Russian army (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation). The Birobidzhan District Court imposed a fine, the exact amount of which is unknown. The occasion was Blaschke’s tweet about the economic consequences of Russian aggression, published in August 2022.