June 26 () –
The United States Government has reacted to Russia’s announcement to prohibit access to the Internet pages of more than 80 media outlets from European Union countries, including four Spanish ones, pointing out that it reflects the “fear” that Russians will listen “the truth”.
“I think it’s another sign that the Russian government is cracking down on journalism because it’s afraid of its own people hearing the truth, the truth about Russian actions inside Russia, their government’s actions to suppress their own people, Russia’s actions to invade its neighbor and illegally occupy it,” said US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
In this regard, he said that for these reasons “we have seen strong measures taken against journalism lately, and unfortunately this continues,” added the spokesman for US diplomacy during a press conference.
The Russian Foreign Ministry indicated this Tuesday that the media affected by the measure would have “systematically disseminated false information about the progress of the special military operation”, the name Moscow uses to refer to the invasion of Ukraine. Furthermore, he clarified that the decision was made in response to a similar one by the European Council, which on May 17 suspended the broadcasts of four other Russian media outlets for “supporting Russian propaganda.”
“Russia has repeatedly said and warned at various levels that politically motivated harassment against national journalists and unfounded bans on Russian media in the EU will not go unanswered,” he said, before criticizing that “Brussels and the capitals of the countries of the bloc have chosen the path of escalation, forcing Moscow to adopt proportional countermeasures with another illegitimate ban.
The list of media affected by Moscow’s decision includes four Spanish media: RTVE, the EFE agency and the newspapers ‘El País’ and ‘El Mundo’, as well as 73 media from other countries in the bloc and four European media, including Agence Europe, Politico, Euobserver and the Svoboda satellite package, without the EU having commented on the matter for now.
On May 17, the 27 adopted the suspension of Voice of Europe, RIA Novosti, Izvestia and Rossiyskaya Gazeta, arguing that “these media outlets are under the permanent control, direct or indirect, of Russia’s leaders and have been essential and decisive for promote and support the war of aggression against Ukraine.”
The measure is added to those already approved in March 2022 against Russian media outlets responsible for the dissemination of propaganda about the war, which in that case affected the Russian news agency Sputnik and the Russia Today television network, alleging that they were instruments used by the Kremlin for political purposes.
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