Axel Springer settled a lawsuit against Julian Reichelt, the former chief editor of Bild, Germany’s best-selling newspaper, who left the company amidst sexual misconduct allegations two years ago.

The “agreement marks [a] truce in [a] bitter dispute that had clouded efforts to move on from sexual harassment claims”, FT notes. Financial details of the settlement haven’t been disclosed. 

Russia added over a dozen British journalists and media managers to the list of individuals banned from entering the country. The list includes BBC News chief executive Deborah Turness and The Guardian‘s world affairs editor Julian Borger, among others.

For most of the people included the move has hardly any practical implications beyond the ability to tout this “badge of honour” on social media, yet it’s a small part of the broader crackdown on Western journalists covering Russia, including the detention of Evan Gershkovich in March. 

In the meanwhile, persecution of journalists in neighbouring Belarus is even more sinister. Most recently, the authorities added jailed leaders of TUT.BY, the country’s major independent news outlet, to the list of “extremists”. Practically this means that they are “banned from playing any kind of public role in Belarusian society”, and law enforcement agencies “can also monitor all of their financial transactions and follow them when they are released from prison”, Reporters Without Borders note.

TUT.BY’s chief editor Maryna Zolatava and director Liudmila Chekina were among the outlet’s employees detained in 2021 in the wake of the Lukashenka regime’s crackdown on the remaining free press; in 2023 they were sentenced to 12 years of jail on bogus allegations. 

Julian Reichelt is on the cover photo. Source: © Superbass / CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

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