Romanian authorities have expelled Irish journalist Chey Bose, who works for the Russian television network RT, the editor-in-chief of the Russian broadcaster Margarita Simonyan said, Romanian border police confirmed the expulsion.
Bose was planning to report on the planned 4 May presidential election. He left Dublin for Bucharest on 1 May but was not allowed to enter Romania and was put on a plane to Istanbul.
According to his X network profile, Bose’s residence is the capital Moscow.
“Chay is Irish, and while a country in the European Union can refuse entry to another EU citizen in extreme circumstances, he must pose a threat to public order, safety or health. Chai has committed no crime other than his professional plans to cover the Romanian elections for us,” Simonyan wrote on the X network on the evening of May 1.
That same evening, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Romanian authorities of preventing the RT correspondent from doing her job.
Romania’s border police confirmed the expulsion, saying the journalist had been banned from entering Romanian territory without publicising the reason for the ban. The agency said that on 1 May at about 19:00 the Irishman was checked by border guards at Bucharest airport, where he arrived on a flight from Dublin.
The checks found that he was banned from entering Romanian territory.
“The Irish citizen was informed of the situation The person stayed in the transit zone and bought a ticket for a flight towards Turkey, leaving a few hours later,” the border police said.