Pro-Russian news story from occupied Ukraine is mistake, France24 assures 

Earlier, Espreso TV, a long-term exclusive partner of France24 in Ukraine, appealed to the channel's management due to the scandalous story, asking them to explain how it got on the air and what the channel's position on this issue was, and suspended the broadcast of the French broadcaster's materials on its air until this issue was clarified.

In a response to an appeal from her colleagues at Espreso, Vanessa Burggraf, director of France 24, called the incident an unfortunate mistake. In her letter, Ms. Burggraf explained that France 24 aired an abridged French-language story from France Televisions, the national public television of France, which had been translated into English. Unfortunately, the context of the story was lost in the process of cutting and translating it, and the channel sincerely regrets it.

The director assured her colleagues from Espreso that she would make every effort to prevent the mistake from happening again, and emphasized that France 24 has been covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine in a broad and objective manner since the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine.

“We have produced many reports to this effect, with numerous senior reporters on the ground, embedded with Ukrainian soldiers and who testified to the population's suffering, war crimes committed by Russian soldiers, deported children, women on the front line,” she noted. 

France24's editorial team emphasized that the channel daily confronts Russian propaganda and debunks fake news, as well as creates unique products that reveal the true face of Russian aggression, such as a day-long marathon to mark the anniversary of the attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2023, conducted by 17 journalists in four languages, or a full-length documentary about the Ukrainian resistance in Kherson.

We should add that Vanessa Burggraf also wrote similar letters to the President of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Armed Forces Chief of Staff.

On April 13, France 24 aired a story about a Russian troops' military camp in the occupied territories of Ukraine. The video, titled "War in Ukraine: Russian troops prepare for battle ahead of counteroffensive," outraged public opinion in Ukraine, as the report did not mention that the Russian military was carrying out illegal aggression against Ukraine, and a number of statements in the story and the material as a whole looked like elements of Russian propaganda.

The Espreso editorial team resumes airing the French broadcaster's products on its air.