UN condemns UK for censoring Russian media
The spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Stephane Dujarric, assures that journalists have the right to “do their work everywhere.”
-
The UK sanctioned Russian media.
The spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Stephane Dujarric, condemned the UK for sanctioning Russian media, including RT, describing the action as an interference with the right of journalists to work where they please.
“As a matter of principle, we very much do believe in the right of journalists to do their work everywhere,” Dujarric told reporters.
A new round of sanctions targeting state-sponsored ANO TV-Novosti, which runs RT, and Rossiya Segodnya, which carries Sputnik News, was announced by UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss just hours before.
Although no examples of inaccuracies or deceptive statements from RT or Sputnik were released, London labeled the two outlets as "Russian propagandists and state media that promote lies and deceit about Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine."
Furthermore, the British government claimed that RT "promoted pro-Kremlin narratives about the invasion of Ukraine, such as that neo-Nazis are present in the nation and that Ukrainian military has committed war crimes."
"Both RT and the Western media have reported on the presence of neo-Nazis in Ukraine; some of the Ukrainian military have publicly said that they aim to commit war crimes, and footage reportedly detailing such crimes is currently being investigated," it added.
The 14 names and entities sanctioned on Thursday included General Mikhail Mizintsev, a senior Russian military planner, and Sergey Brilev, a Russian TV anchor.
Truss' latest penalties come after the British media regulator Ofcom revoked Russian media outlets' broadcasting licenses, stating they were unable to report the war in Ukraine.
The #UK Office of Communications (Ofcom) withdrew #RussiaToday's license to broadcast in the nation "with immediate effect" on Friday, claiming that the television station was not "fit and proper" to have the broadcasting permissions.#Russia pic.twitter.com/dbGMoFXdLi
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) March 18, 2022
Meanwhile, the BBC, which is owned by the British government, has covered every battle involving the UK in recent memory, including the phony "weapons of mass destruction" pretext for the 2003 invasion of Iraq not to mention their coverage of the fake Douma attacks in Syria.
Why is Aaron Maté focused on #Douma?
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) June 5, 2021
#Syria #USA@aaronjmate pic.twitter.com/cJidFofC5z
On March 23, the UK government announced that the BBC will get $5.4M in extra funding to allegedly “cover urgent and unexpected costs that have arisen as a result of the war in Ukraine and would help the corporation to tackle disinformation in the face of systemic propaganda."
The BBC already receives direct government financing, frequently from countries that are viewed as strategic allies of the United Kingdom.
It is worth mentioning that Western countries have been imposing sanctions on anything and everything Russian, from oil and gas sales to even Russian-bred cats and classes on Russian writers, sparking comments of rampant Russophobia in the West.
