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Russian authorities have denied ARD journalist Robert Kempe a work permit for the European Football Championship.
The ARD announced on Friday.
Accordingly, Kempe had his accreditation from the European Football Union (Uefa) initially confirmed at the beginning of May. At the end of May, however, he was informed in writing that the local authorities in a country had rejected his accreditation after a "background screening". When asked, Uefa told ARD that it was a matter of Russian authorities. The Russian city of St. Petersburg is one of eleven venues for the pan-European football championship. For all other ten venues in the final round, Kempe's accreditation continues to apply, the Uefa informed the sports information service sid.
"Robert Kempe is an excellent and innocent journalist," WDR editor-in-chief Ellen Ehni is quoted in the article on Sportschau.de.
"We call on Russia to provide clarification and to grant our colleague free access to the Russian venues so that he can carry out his work as a journalist on site." They are now trying to find an alternative means of entry for their colleague to Russia.
The German Association of Journalists (DJV) also criticized it heavily.
"This is an unacceptable interference with the freedom of the press, which shows once again that critical reporting in Russia is not only undesirable, but also has consequences for journalists," said the DJV Federal Chairman Frank Überall.
Kempe regularly reports on the connections between sport and politics in Russia.
Most recently he dealt with the Russian state company Gazprom and its connections in European football.
Gazprom is the largest shareholder in the Zenit St. Petersburg football club and one of the sponsors of this year's European Championship.
"The connections between Gazprom and Uefa are close, in my opinion they go beyond a normal sponsorship relationship," said Kempe a few days ago in a podcast on the WDR program "Sport Inside".
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