The United States and its allies criticized Russia for its crackdown on independent media, calling on it to defend free speech. V joint statementreleased on Thursday evening, October 28, 17 countries, including the United States, Canada, Germany and Ukraine, indicated that Russia’s stringent new labeling requirements for messages published by “foreign agents” indicate “unequivocal attempts to block Russians’ access to independent journalism.”
The statement notes that over the past four months, Russia has included dozens of journalists and media outlets on the list of “foreign agents”. According to the authors of the document, Moscow is trying to close the branches of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty in Russia, accusing them of more than 600 violations and imposing fines on them totaling $ 4.4 million, and expelled the correspondent of the British media company Sarah Rainsford from the countries. …
Detention of journalists
The United States and its allies also criticized the Russian authorities for the detention of journalists who covered the rallies in support of Alexei Navalny, that ten reporters concluded only that they were doing their job.
– said in a joint statement.
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Author: Elena Barysheva, Mikhail Bushuev, Elena Gunkel