White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Monday expressed condolences to a Fox News correspondent whose colleague, British-American journalist Benjamin Hall, was recently injured while reporting in Ukraine.
According to a statement from Fox CEO Suzanne Scott, Mr Hall — a veteran foreign correspondent who has previously written for The Independent — was injured “while news gathering outside of Kyiv in Ukraine”.
Ms Scott said Mr Hall had been hospitalised, adding that more information on his condition was being sought by Fox’s “teams on the ground”.
Speaking at the daily White House press briefing, Ms Psaki was asked about President Biden’s pledge to “respond forcefully” if any Americans were harmed in Ukraine, in light of Mr Hall’s injuries and the death of another American journalist, Brent Renaud.
In response, Ms Psaki told Fox correspondent Jacqui Heinrich that Mr Biden’s “thoughts,” as well as those of the entire Biden administration, were with Mr Hall, his family, and his colleagues.
“Well, let me first say, your colleague, Benjamin Hall, I know there’s not final reports yet or we would wait for your news organization to confirm those but our thoughts, the president’s thoughts, our administration’s thoughts are with him, his family and all of you at Fox News as well,” she said.
She added that Mr Biden has been “leading the world” in putting “consequences” and “repercussions” in place in the form of crippling economic sanctions.
News of Mr Hall’s injury comes just one day after Mr Renaud, an American journalist, was shot and killed by Russian forces in Irpin while on an assignment for TIME magazine.
Mr Renaud was in a car on route to report on Ukrainian refugees trying to evacuate when the vehicle was ambushed by Vladimir Putin’s troops, according to Ukrainian officials. A second American journalist was also wounded and taken to hospital.
