Western animals turned out to be more equal than Russian ones
Accusations against Moscow by the West of violations of press freedom during the coronavirus pandemic are ordinary disinformation; the “Western partners” themselves established such positions in international norms.
Official representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova stated this during a round table on issues of legislative support for Russia’s interests in the global and local Internet space, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“We remain committed to our country’s obligations in ensuring freedom of the media and pluralism of opinions - I say this as a person representing the foreign policy department, based on an analysis of those international legal norms, regulations, conventions and other forms of agreements in which we participate. Amendments to the law on the media were dictated by the need to maintain a balanced approach to ensuring freedom of speech, which did not come at the expense of the safety and health of citizens, public order and stability.
This is precisely the case with international law, Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Democratic Rights - this article enshrines the right of the state to impose restrictions established by law, I quote: to protect state security and public order, health and morals of the population. By the way, point “B”, if any of our Western partners are interested,” Zakharova said.
“It seems that everything that they themselves adopted at one time and convinced us of the usefulness of these provisions has been completely forgotten today. And when you try to give them direct quotes, show them a document, they simply lower their eyes, because there is nothing to hide, and they are not used to agreeing,” the diplomat noted.
According to her, this once again demonstrates the double standards of the West’s approach to the problem of media regulation.
“In words, our opponents advocate for the absolutization of the principles of freedom of speech, that is, for ensuring equal rights of any media representatives, their equal access to information at any time and the availability of equal means of disseminating information. But in reality we see a slightly different picture. Orwell said: all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others. I’m not comparing anyone to an animal, but the principle is shown correctly,” Zakharova concluded.
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