News in Brief

SANCTIONED BY RUSSIA

Judge us by our critics.

In August, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced it had sanctioned six Byline Times contributors after this newspaper’s award-winning exposés of Vladimir Putin’s crimes in Ukraine. The journalists have been added to its ‘stop list’, banning them from ever entering the country. The ministry said the move was in retaliation for “efforts to demonise our country” and “actively fabricate anti-Russia narratives to diminish Moscow’s international influence”.

Those on the list were Byline Podcast Editor and presenter Adrian Goldberg; former Byline TV Editor Caolan Robertson; and contributors John Sweeney, Paul Conroy, and Zarina Zabrisky, who Russia accuses of “collaborating” with Byline Times.

Sweeney, Conroy, and Zabrisky fronted Byline TV’s award-winning investigative documentary film Under Deadly Skies, which exposed Russia’s war crimes against the Ukrainian people on the eastern front.