15 Facts About Simon Ostrovsky

Simon Ostrovsky is an American journalist and documentary producer.

Simon Ostrovsky is best known for his coverage of the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014 and 2015, when he was dispatched by VICE News to cover the events that unfolded in Ukraine as the country came into conflict with neighbouring Russia prior to and after Crimea's annexation by the latter.

Simon Ostrovsky started his career in documentary filmmaking in 2007 after spending six years as a print reporter in Russia, where he covered Russia for The Moscow Times and then Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan for the French news agency Agence France-Presse.

In 2007, Simon Ostrovsky produced an exclusive report for BBC Newsnight investigating government-sponsored child labor in the cotton industry of Uzbekistan, which a US embassy cable published by Wikileaks credited with reigniting the global campaign against Uzbek cotton.

In 2009, Simon Ostrovsky exposed the use of North Koreans in work camps in Russia for BBC Newsnight, and linked their operations to the Russian Timber Group, a company owned and operated by the wealthy British Hambro family, which was paying the North Korean regime to use its workers in Russia.

Simon Ostrovsky revisited those camps with VICE Media founder Shane Smith in 2011, and co-produced a separate report for VICE's documentary news series on HBO about the escape of defectors from North Korea in 2013.

Simon Ostrovsky has reported extensively on the North Korean practice of sending workers abroad.

In 2018, Simon Ostrovsky joined media start-up Coda Media as Investigations Editor and began contributing to PBS Newshour.

Simon Ostrovsky was imprisoned for three days, during which he was held in a basement, beaten and interrogated.

Simon Ostrovsky described the ordeal as "the worst three days of my life" in an account he authored for Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper.

Immediately prior to his detention, Simon Ostrovsky had been investigating Russian citizens' involvement in the pro-Russia armed groups of eastern Ukraine, something separatist forces were trying to hide at that early stage of the conflict, according to a video deposition he made for VICE News following his release.

Simon Ostrovsky had attended several press conferences of Ponomarev where the rebel leader had threatened journalists.

Later that day however, Ponomarev falsely or unknowingly told media that Simon Ostrovsky was still being held.

In 2015, Simon Ostrovsky reported and produced the video investigation Selfie Soldiers: Russia Checks in to Ukraine, in which he traces a Russian soldier's online presence to confirm that he had fought in Ukraine.

Selfie Soldiers departs from other such investigations into soldiers' social media posts when Simon Ostrovsky re-enacts the pictures himself to establish clearly that he has personally visited the locations where they were taken inside of both Ukraine and Russia.