The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ) on Thursday expressed their support for the Moscow correspondent of the French daily newspaper Le Monde, Benjamin Quénelle, who has just had his accreditation revoked by the Russian authorities. The EFJ and IFJ call on the Russian authorities to reverse their decision.
The Russian authorities have decided to revoke the accreditation of Benjamin Quénelle, correspondent for the daily newspaper Le Monde. After having had his press accreditation suspended on 16 October 2024, Benjamin Quénelle was notified of the cancellation of this document on 30 January 2025, effectively banning him from working as a correspondent in Russia.
The Russian Foreign Ministry indicated in its exchanges with French diplomacy that this revocation of accreditation was a retaliatory measure following France’s refusal to issue press visas to alleged journalists from the daily Komsomolskaya Pravda.
The director of Le Monde, Jérôme Fenoglio, condemned this “disguised expulsion” of a journalist who has spent more than twenty years in Russia without interruption. Le Monde’s Society of Journalists also denounced this “iniquitous decision” to revoke their colleague’s accreditation.
“Once again, as in the case of Evan Gershkovich,” reacted the EFJ and IFJ, “the political authorities are holding the press hostage and inflicting retaliatory measures on a journalist who was just doing his job and had nothing to reproach himself for. The waves of accreditation revocations following the designation of media outlets as “terrorist organisations” or “foreign agents” demonstrate the massive censorship policy pursued by the Russian authorities”.
Source: EFJ
