Billy Six

Six was arrested in Syria by the Syrian army in December 2012 while working for Junge Freiheit.[11] He was held for 12 weeks under local laws, until he was released after an intervention by Russian diplomats.[12]

On 2 August 2016, along with British journalist Graham Phillips, Six entered the Berlin office of the investigative journalism organisation Correctiv without permission. Phillips then demanded an interview with Marcus Bensmann, who was investigating Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. Phillips repeatedly accused Bensmann of lying, shouting "Lying press!", while filming the incident, and refusing to leave. Correctiv called the police, however Phillips and Six evaded them.[13][14]

Six was an open and active coronavirus sceptic, describing the pandemic as 'pure scaremongering'.[15] A Bayern hospital which Six had filmed, making it out to be empty, reportedly filed charges against him for unauthorised filming.[15] Six had several of his videos on the theme removed from YouTube, and he was further criticised by Correctiv for his position on, and reporting on COVID-19.[16]

Apparently having problems in Germany due to his covid activism, Six left for some time to Georgia, where he did videos for his YouTube channel.[17]

In late 2018, Six travelled to Venezuela to report on the ongoing crisis in the county, for his YouTube channel. Six had apparently left Venezuela to go to neighbouring Colombia, and was arrested as he returned to Venezuela, at an inn in Villa Marina, a beach town located in Los Taques Municipality near Punto Fijo. Six was detained in the intelligence prison of the SEBIN, "El Helicoide" by the Venezuelan secret service DGCIM. He was accused of being a German spy, and before a military court indicted of espionage, rebellion, and violation of security zones. Six, who was denied access to a lawyer, declared in his defence that the charges "were without foundation".[18][19]

Berlin initially gave no comment on the detainment of their citizen. On 13 December 2018, Six began a hunger strike, to draw attention to his case.[20][21] Six's case attracted much controversy; Reporters Without Borders declared that the allegations were unproven and called for his release.[22] [23] Eventually, the Russian government intervened during a meeting of foreign minister Sergiy Lavrov with Venezuelan counterpart Jorge Arreaza at United Nations Conference on Drugs and Crime in Vienna on 14th of March 2019.[24][25][26][27]Six was released the next day and on 16 March 2019, he was granted conditional permission to leave the country.The conditions included reporting to authorities in Germany at 15-day intervals and a ban on him speaking about the incident.[22][28]

Billy Six in Ukraine

Six has often reported from Ukraine, on the subject of the War in Donbas (2014–2022). He has produced multiple videos on the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) incident, spending time in the crash area, carrying out his investigative research. Six was interviewed by the BBC in the documentary Conspiracy Files: Who Shot Down MH17 (May 2016).[29] The BBC reported "Six thinks two (Ukrainian) fighter jets shot down MH17 - one firing its cannon, the other firing a missile." He has also given an interview to investigative agency Bellingcat on the theme.[30]

Six's YouTube channel shows that in late 2022 he returned to Ukraine, originally [[[Lviv]], asking people what they thought of Ukrainian Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists leader, Stepan Bandera. Six followed this up with a report from the frontline, interviewing Ukrainian soldiers in what he described as 'Putin's lost battle'. [31]

As of 2023, Six continues to produce videos for his YouTube channel, recently from Turkey. [17]