Lachlan Murdoch, the chair of Fox Corp., and reporter Benjamin Hall met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this week as the leader awarded Hall with the country’s Order of Merit.
The trip to Ukraine marks Hall’s first since he was gravely injured in March 2022 during shelling while covering the country’s ongoing war with Russia. Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and local Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra Kuvshynova were killed during the same attack.
The trip was organized by Murdoch, who took over as chair of Fox for his father and media mogul Rupert Murdoch this month, after he had been invited by Zelensky to visit the country.
Zelensky thanked Murdoch for his visit and “emphasized that it is a very important signal of support at the time when the world’s attention is blurred by other events,” the Ukrainian government said in a statement.
Coverage of the war on Fox, the top-rated cable news channel, has been closely watched by media and political observers for months. While the network has provided extensive reporting on the conflict on the ground by Hall and other journalists, it has sparked controversy for some of the opinion commentary it has aired surrounding the war — most notably from former prime-time pundit Tucker Carlson.
Fox pulled Carlson off the air in April, a decision that was ultimately made by Lachlan Murdoch, according to multiple reports.
Since going through an extensive rehabilitation process following his injury, Hall has written a best-selling book about his experience in Ukraine and has returned to Fox’s airwaves covering international relations.
As part of his visit to Ukraine, Hall conducted a sit-down interview with Zelensky, which will air on “Special Report” with Bret Baier on Tuesday, the network said.