Read excerpts from the statement of Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OSCE Maxim Buyakevich (meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council, 19 January 2023)

On gross violations of freedom of the media by some Western OSCE participating States

The attack on one of the fundamental freedoms - media freedom – continues in some OSCE pS. In the past year, this paranoid struggle against imaginary enemies has resulted in imposition of total censorship, whose manifestations are manifold

In December 2022, the EU Council adopted «ninth package» of sanctions against Russia, which included four more TV channels. Under the made-up pretext of combating «propaganda», Brussels actively pursues a policy of restricting citizens' access to information

The cleansing of the information and socio-political field of dissent in Moldova continues. We regard Chisinau's actions as an outrage against the principle of media pluralism. Not to mention the cynical infringement of the rights of national minorities

The silence of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Teresa Ribeiro is surprising, she doesn’t notice or doesn’t want to notice the freedom of expression’s violations in Moldova. It is easy to imagine what kind of rhetoric would be heard in OSCE if something similar happened in Russia or Belarus

There is no end in sight to the persecution of professional journalism in the Baltic states. On 5 January, the editor-in-chief of Sputnik Lithuania, M.Kasem, was detained in Riga. The journalist is accused of flouting the EU sanctions regime

Riga has once again demonstrated that media pluralism and the rights of journalists are empty words for it. We demand that OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Teresa Ribeiro, finally make her contribution to stopping repressions carried out by the Latvian regime

Repression by Estonian authorities against the editor-in-chief of the Baltija.eu portal, A.Kornilov, stems from his work to protect the Russian and Russian-speaking population of Estonia - in December 2022 he had his residence permit revoked and was banned from entering the Schengen area for 5 years

The formation of a system of total censorship in Ukraine is also of little interest to the OSCE and Western countries. Our Organization failed to notice the adoption of the odious Law on the Media in December 2022 there, which was harshly criticised by the professional community

Western states are directly responsible for the fragmentation of the information field, as well as for the complete violation of the universal principles of freedom of media and freedom of expression. For this reason, they have no right to engage in criticism of other states