(Washington) The United States on Monday accused Russia of “intimidating” American media correspondents in Moscow, summoned by Russian diplomacy who threatened them with reprisals because of American sanctions.
Posted at 5:04 p.m.
“The Russian Foreign Ministry has summoned your colleagues to ‘explain to them the consequences of their government’s hostile line in the media sphere,'” US Foreign Ministry spokesman Ned Price told reporters in Washington.
“Let’s be clear, the Kremlin is carrying out an all-out attack on freedom of the press, access to information and the truth”, he said, denouncing a “clear and blatant effort to intimidate independent journalists”. .
The spokesperson for Russian diplomacy Maria Zakharova threatened at the end of May to expel Western media and journalists if the YouTube platform blocked, as it has already done, its weekly briefings. On Friday, she again accused Washington of “repressing Russian media” in the United States.
Russian Foreign Ministry photo via Associated Press archives
Russian Foreign Minister Maria Zakharova
“They are doing everything possible to make the work of the Russian media impossible”, “if they do not normalize the work of the Russian media on American territory, we will retaliate with strong measures”, she had warned, announcing that the representatives American media were “invited” to the Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday.
According to Ned Price, his American counterpart, Moscow is reacting in this way to the blacklisting, a month ago, of three Russian television channels, Pervy Kanal, Rossiïa-1, and NTV, as part of international sanctions. against the invasion of Ukraine.
This is a “false equivalence”, protested the American official. He assured that the sanctioned media were “tools of Russian government propaganda” whose “income supports the war” of President Vladimir Putin, and which could not be put “on the same level” as “independent” American journalists. and “impartial”.
“The United States continues to issue visas to Russian journalists, and we have not revoked the accreditation of any Russian journalist working in the United States,” he pleaded.