AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
It's been more than four years since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In March of 2022, a Fox News crew set out from Kyiv to film what was happening on the outskirts of the capital. But the vehicle the journalists were traveling in was hit by a Russian strike. Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall was the only one to make it out alive and just barely. The families of the two journalists who were killed are suing Fox News, saying the network should've done more to protect their loved ones. NPR's David Folkenflik has been investigating the incident and joins us now. Good morning.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Good morning, Ayesha.
RASCOE: So what happened that day?
FOLKENFLIK: So think back. It's 14 of March 2022. It's a few weeks after Russia's launched its bloody invasion of Ukraine. And on that day, from a hotel in a historic part of Kyiv, set out a Fox News crew. It's Benjamin Hall. He's a veteran war correspondent. You've got Pierre Zakrzewski - he's a veteran video journalist for Fox News, much beloved there - and Sasha Kuvshynova. She's a 24-year-old Ukrainian. She was hired to be their fixer, kind of an interpreter, scouting for sites to film at, figuring out what stories to cover, interpreting things, yes, but also talking to people in the military and the government, helping them do their reporting.
They set out with what's called a high-risk security adviser - guys meant to keep them safe and to help them plan logistics and help provide medical care - out in this van towards the perimeter of Kyiv. And they had been told, don't go beyond the city limits of Kyiv, things are too hot, there are too many Russian troops. American documentary maker had been killed the previous day in the suburbs, just beyond city limits. Just stay inside it.
But when they get to the place where they intend to film, they're told by soldiers they can't go. And so they're being escorted by two Ukrainian soldiers who say, hey, bundle in our car, we'll take you to some nearby abandoned villages, we'll get you some footage. And they leave behind the security adviser there, and they go on.
And upon returning, they get struck. They're still in the suburbs in the northwest of Kyiv, and they get struck by a Russian missile. Benjamin Hall ultimately loses a leg. It's amputated. He loses a foot. He loses use of one of his eyes. He pays a terrible price, but Pierre Zakrzewski's killed. Sasha Kuvshynova's killed. The two soldiers are killed. It's a tragedy.
RASCOE: You spent more than two years investigating this tragedy. What questions were you trying to answer?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, look, you know, major news organizations like Fox, like NPR, like The New York Times, train journalists in how to operate in risky and conflict zones. And they hire high-risk advisers, the people who are there to keep them safe. All that's true. But there are real questions here about what risks one takes to tell stories, what stories are worth taking risks to cover, and whose responsibility it is to decide all that.
And in addition, I found in court documents, there had been at least one red flag raised. An international news producer for Fox had said that Hall had earlier imperiled the lives of his colleagues in covering the wars and conflicts in Syria. To our knowledge, nothing came of that formal complaint. And, you know, there are others who are saying, you know, Fox didn't do enough to protect people, yes, but that also Benjamin Hall bears some fault at the time. I spoke on the record with Aaron King. He was a high-risk security adviser in Ukraine for Fox News. Here's what he had to say.
AARON KING: If you took Benji out the equation, it would never have happened.
FOLKENFLIK: That is laying some of the blame squarely at Benjamin Hall's door. I reached out to Hall and to Fox repeatedly on this. They declined to comment. Hall was not made available to comment on this, but Hall's own memoir writes about his being drawn to danger, to bear witness to violent (ph) conflict repeatedly as a combat reporter, and that it became a fundamental part of who he was.
RASCOE: What are the families arguing in their lawsuits?
FOLKENFLIK: So both lawsuits are making the case that is - Michelle Ross-Stanton is the widow of Pierre Zakrzewski. She filed a lawsuit in London, and Sasha Kuvshynova's parents filed a lawsuit in New York. They're both arguing that Fox failed to keep the journalists safe. But in the case of Sasha Kuvshynova's parents, they're also arguing that Ben Hall, in order to push to cover stories, did so too aggressively and was heedless of the peril they put her in.
There's an additional element as well in the case of Sasha Kuvshynova's parents. They allege that Fox kept them in the dark about its possible role in her death and that the network even got Kuvshynova's father to sign papers absolving them of all liability as part of a package getting the backpay that Fox still owed her. And this was just two weeks after her death. Here's Iryna Mamaysur. That's Sasha Kuvshynova's mother.
IRYNA MAMAYSUR: (Through interpreter) Fox treated us shamefully because they didn't consider us and didn't respect us.
RASCOE: What does Fox News say about all of this?
FOLKENFLIK: In court papers and public statements, they've nodded to the idea that covering war is incredibly dangerous and that it's perilous and that it's unpredictable. In court documents, they've said Ben Hall was wrong, tragically wrong - but wrong nonetheless - in his belief that Russians were 30 miles away. And in the case of Sasha Kuvshynova's parents, they say, look, that liability waiver signed by her father is the beginning and end of the case.
RASCOE: So where do things stand now?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, a New York state judge has allowed the case from Sasha Kuvshynova's parents to proceed to what's called discovery so they can get internal evidence from Fox to try to figure out what they can show and what actually happened and to see if they can pursue their case at a full trial. The judge was not impressed by the liability waiver. She said this was done at a time a nuclear-armed country had invaded their nation and that they were bereaved. That ruling is on appeal. Pierre Zakrzewski's widow's case is still, you know, wending its way through the courts in London.
RASCOE: That's NPR's David Folkenflik. Thank you so much.
FOLKENFLIK: You bet.
RASCOE: You can read the full story about what happened to the Fox News crew in Ukraine on npr.org.
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