Graham Phillips

Graham Phillips     (Journalist, Blogger, Photographer)
Born	26 January 1979
Residence	Donbass,  Ukraine
Nationality	British
Alma mater	University of Dundee
Interests	• 2014 Ukraine coup/Civil war • Ukrainian death squads • Sinking of the MS Estonia • Eliot Higgins
Interest of	Myrotvorets
UK blogger who did much reporting on the civil war in Ukraine since 2014.

Graham William Phillips is a British journalist, blogger, columnist and photographer. From 2013 he worked as a freelancer for Russian state-owned channels Russia Today (RT) and Zvezda. Some sources, including Phillips himself, have stated that Phillips worked for RT, as a freelancer, from 2013-2014, however others have claimed he was still working for RT in 2016. For his journalistic work, Phillips has frequently been described as 'controversial'.

Background

Graham Phillips was born on 26 January 1979. Some sources state he was born in Nottingham, United Kingdom, others that he was born in Dundee or Perth. He went to school in the Scottish city of Perth, then graduated from Dundee University.

Career

From around 2002 until around 2010, Phillips worked as a civil servant at the Central Office of Information in London, in an administrative capacity, where as one of 700 officials he reviewed government websites and prepared reports for parliament.

Move to Ukraine

In 2011 Phillips moved to Ukraine, and reported from there both as a print journalist, and from the time of Euromaidan as a video journalist,. He covered Euromaidan in Kyiv, and took an anti-Maidan position, repeatedly referring to the new, post-Maidan Ukrainian government as "fascists" and "Kyiv junta". Due to twice being deported, and banned from Ukraine for his journalism from the Russo-Ukrainian War he has only reported from the non-government controlled parts of Ukraine since 2014. From 2014 on, Phillips has covered events in Crimea, annexed by Russia. He has reported on the Crimean Bridge. Phillips reported from the warzone in Donbas. In November 2014, Phillips was wounded while reporting from the frontline, receiving a shrapnel wound to his back.

In 2019, Phillips started reporting from Serbia.

Opinions

Phillips has been described as "pro-Russian". He claimed that he had repeatedly received death threats for his work. Phillips was detained by the Ukrainian security forces on 20 May 2014, when he was leaving Mariupol for Sloviansk, accusing him of espionage for the Russians, however, he was released two days later. Ukrainian government have accused Phillips of supporting "terrorist activity" in Donbas, while Ukraine's embassy in London had called him a "Russian propagandist". It also urged the U.K. police to investigate his "terrorist activity in Eastern Ukraine".

In September 2016, Ukraine strongly criticised Phillips for his interview with a Ukrainian prisoner of war, which Ukraine said amounted to an interrogation. Ukrainians then petitioned then UK Prime Minister Theresa May to punish Phillips, and even strip him of his British passport.

In April 2015, Phillips was denied access to the museum dedicated to Stepan Bandera, a Ukrainian radical politician, in London immediately after he introduced himself. The reason was that the museum was not public, and Phillips had not signed up in advance. Phillips also called Stepan Bandera "an accomplice of the Nazis in the World War II".

In 2016, with German journalist Billy Six, Phillips was accused of 'storming into' Berlin-based information agency 'Correctiv', and accusing them of propaganda in relation to the MH17 disaster.

In October 2018, Phillips placed a sign on the grave of Stepan Bandera in Munich, claiming that he was a Nazi, causing a scandal in Ukraine. Phillips defended his actions by saying it was 'historically correct'.

In March 2016, Phillips interrupted a Remembrance Day of the Latvian Legionnaires march in Riga and shouted, "why are you glorifying fascism?", for which he was detained by the Latvian police officers. He was released, but was then deported to Russia. Latvia’s Interior Minister, Rihards Kozlovskis blasted Phillips for his “provocation” in the Latvian capital.

In March 2019, Phillips went to Kosovo to do reportage. In a video he published on his YouTube channel, referred to the Kosovo Liberation Army as a "terrorist organization". He then told Balkan Insight that Kosovo was a "state controlled by terrorists and war criminals". Phillips also stated that most of what has been said about Kosovo was "based on lies, misinformation and propaganda". His statements caused a backlash in Kosovo.

Awards

Phillips received his first award on 1 March 2015, by the then Mayor of Chekhov, Moscow Oblast, Pavel Khlyupin. He received "Frontier Brotherhood" Badge for "providing real assistance to Novorossiya".

Then, on 21 December, the head of the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), Igor Plotnitsky, awarded Phillips "For Merit" Medal II Degree. On 29 September 2016, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the LPR awarded him "For Assistance to the Internal Affairs Bodies" Medal for a "significant personal contribution to the timely, high-quality and objective coverage of events taking place on the territory of the LPR".

In February 2016, Phillips was awarded the medal of a military journalist named after Dmitry Karbyshev.

In September 2016 By Order of the Minister of Internal Affairs of the LPR No. 273 "for a significant personal contribution to timely, high-quality and objective coverage of events taking place in the LPR", Phillips was awarded the medal "For assistance to the internal affairs bodies."

In November 2020, Phillips was awarded the 'War Correspondent' medal by the "Wave of Memory" organisation, in Moscow.

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Assange Final Appeal Day 2 – Your Man in the Public Gallery	blog post	29 February 2024	Craig Murray	Initially US authorities were keen to downplay the possible sentence, but have radically changed tack and now emphasise 30 to 40 years as the norm, which is in effect a rest of life sentence. That shift, together with the refusal so far to rule out the death penalty, gives a measure of the ruthlessness with which the CIA is pursuing the extradition of Julian Assange.
Document:Assange Final Appeal – Your Man in the Public Gallery	blog post	21 February 2024	Craig Murray	The indictment describes Wikileaks as a “non-state hostile intelligence agency”. That was plainly an accusation of espionage. This is self-evidently a politically motivated prosecution for a political offence.

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References

This page imported content from Everybodywiki on 14 March 2022.
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