Russia closes the CBC/Radio-Canada office in Moscow, an antenna opened 44 years ago, during the time of the USSR, and announces the termination of accreditations and visas for Canadian correspondents. The leaders of the public media learned the news this Wednesday morning by reading the dispatch of a press agency. The office employs nine people, including six Russians.
“It’s a dark day. We are extremely disappointed. I would even say that we are in shock, ”commented in the afternoon Luce Julien, director general of information for Radio-Canada. “You also have to understand that, from memory, this is the first time that a foreign government has closed one of our offices. For international journalism, we agree that this is very, very bad news. »
The state corporation was the only Canadian media company present in Russia with permanent correspondents. Mme Julien intends to open another office in the region, as other foreign media have done, including to cover events in Russia.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova presented the office closure as a response to the mid-March banning of Russia Today, English-language channels, and RT France by the Broadcasting Council and of Canadian Telecommunications (CRTC). The decision came after a request from the federal government followed by a public consultation.
The exercise had concluded that the presentation of these two continuous news channels complied “neither with the standards that Canadian services must follow” nor with the policies of the Broadcasting Act.
“In Canada, it’s not the government, it’s not me, it’s not a minister who made the decision,” said Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez on Wednesday. “It was the CRTC that consulted a ton of Canadians, rendered a decision of almost 7,000 words on this. In Russia, it is simply the minister who says: “We kick all the journalists out.” A fundamental difference between the two. »
For his part, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau added that it was “extremely important to always support the freedom of the press and the professional work that journalists provide everywhere”.
By his decision to expel Canadian media from Moscow, Putin is trying to prevent them from reporting facts and this is unacceptable. Journalists must be able to work safely – without censorship, intimidation or interference. Canada will always defend this principle.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) May 18, 2022
Other media have already suffered the same fate as CBC/Radio-Canada. Moscow closed the Deutsche Welle office in early March, less than two weeks after the start of the invasion of Ukraine, again citing the ban on RT in Germany. The closure of the Russian media had however been decided by Berlin on December 22, 2021 because it did not operate under a German license, but under a Serbian permit.
Diplomatic War
Tamara Altéresco, who has held the position of correspondent for Radio-Canada in Russia for four years, gives a more comprehensive reading of the Russian decision.
“Why are we gagged, punished so harshly? There is a diplomatic war with Canada right now, obviously, and independent Canadian journalism is paying the price,” she noted from Montreal, alongside Ms.me Julien, during the online press conference. “Russia sees Canada [où résident 1,5 million de personnes d’origine ukrainienne] like a little Ukraine. […] What troubles us is the Russian government’s decision to punish us for what it blames the Canadian government for. »
War correspondent specialist Aimé-Jules Bizimana, a professor in the Department of Social Sciences at UQO, adopts the same perspective. “We are facing a diplomatic war. It is the very disturbing, very visible diplomatic action of Canada that explains the decision to close the office. »
In fact, CBC/Radio-Canada journalists have already left Moscow following the adoption of a law controlling the news media on Russian territory; broadcasting news deemed inconsistent with the official line on the war in Ukraine is now punishable by 15 years in prison. Canada’s crown corporation and most Western media groups — the BBC, CNN, the New York Times — have since preferred to withdraw their journalistic teams from the country.
It is Canada’s very disturbing, very visible diplomatic action that explains the decision to close the office
To compensate, since February 15, Radio-Canada has sent about fifteen teams to report to the region. Mme Altéresco itself had been working outside the country for a few weeks.
A fact already accomplished
“Yes, we sanction a media, but in fact, it was already done, comments Professor Bizimana. Radio-Canada was no longer there. […] The Russian legislative measures against the media are essentially a domestic measure, to close the space to opponents or independent media. Moscow does not want information about the war to circulate. The foreign media were not the first targets; Russians don’t get their news from Radio-Canada or CBS or Deutsche Welle. »
Moscow does not want information about the war to circulate
He also points out that Russia has no interest in appearing in the Western media at the moment, with the whole world taking up Ukraine’s cause. “The Russians are the aggressors. The correspondents have an attachment to Ukraine. And how not to be with what is happening? »
Finally, he underlines the importance of the war of images in this conflict of the digital age. Citizens capture and broadcast most of the videos from the front. The belligerents and their allies themselves add to it by showing the destruction of Russian targets, for example. “Without the amateur images, what remains of the media coverage of the war? War correspondents have a hard time getting close to the front, he says. It is therefore difficult to understand what is happening on the ground. The Russians don’t hesitate to shoot anyone.