Read excerpts from the statement by Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the OSCE M.Buyakevich (meeting of the OSCE PC, 02.05.2024)
World Press Freedom Day
May 3 celebrates World Freedom Day. Today, we can ritually speculate on the significance of this day, report on achievements in the information field or about national plans to support the media and strengthen trust in society. But the evidence is such that the genuine freedom of the media no longer exists
“Double standards”, targeted restrictions and illegality regarding representatives of the media sphere have become almost ordinary in the countries of the “collective West”
The situation with freedom of speech in Ukraine degraded to a critical level. All the media opposition to the Kiev regime has long been prohibited, any manifestations of dissent are brutally suppressed and exhausted from the information space. In addition, the Ukrainian authorities are actively continuing the hunt for Russian representatives of the media
Another victim of the NATO puppets in Kyiv was S. Eremin, a military correspondent for the Izvestiya news agency, who was killed in the performance of his professional duties. Unfortunately, we have not received any condemnation of this crime from the OSCE executive structures. Our demands that the "double standards" in assessing offences against journalists be abandoned were once again blatantly ignored
The result of the silence of specialized international institutions was a rapid deterioration in the situation with the rights of reporters also in the Baltic states. The next victim of the frank arbitrariness of the Baltic authorities was the Russian-speaking journalist Svetlana Burtseva, detained on Feb.28 for interaction with the Russian media outlet of “Baltnews”. Earlier this year another reporter - the editor of the Estland Vesti portal by Allan Hantson - was detained
Moldova's information space continues to suffocate in the grip of censorship by the Chisinau regime. This time the Canal 5 TV channel was declared a "threat to state security". We also take note the attempts of the Moldova authorities to take control or close down the public television of Gagauzi
Where well-known measures to eradicate any dissent seem insufficient, more sophisticated tools are invented to suppress it. A vivid example of this is the recent statement of French Minister of Foreign Affairs Stéphane Séjourné about Paris' intention to initiate sanctions measures at the level of EU against "all those who support disinformation and destabilisation campaigns"
"A "fresh" example of encroachment on freedom of speech is the ultimatum, put forward by the US to the owner of Tik Tok. If it refuses to sell the social network to a US business, it will be banned. It is noteworthy that we hear no appeals to Washington to refrain from such a step, no lamentations about the violation of international obligations, no loud words about the importance of ensuring media pluralism as an integral part of a democratic state
After transforming its information space into a closed, tightly censored unipolar structure and encouraging the establishment of an information dictatorship in the countries under its care, such as Ukraine and Moldova, for example, the West has completely lost the right to moralise on ensuring freedom of expression in other countries in the OSCE region