VIENNA, January 15. /TASS/. Russia's Permanent Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has pointed to the silence of OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Teresa Ribeiro amid the death of US journalist Gonzalo Lira in a Ukrainian prison.
"We note the deliberate silence of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Teresa Ribeiro, regarding the death of American journalist Gonzalo Lira in a Ukrainian prison," the mission said in a statement on its Telegram channel. The Russian mission said it came as no surprise that "this blatant example of repression" was ignored by the US mission, which "typically cares a lot more about the rights of the 'proper' media."
The Russian diplomats noted that the West "has long ago given carte blanche to cancel, persecute and without punishment kill unwanted reporters who present an alternative viewpoint about what is happening in the world." "We have already become accustomed to such pathological hypocrisy on the part of both some OSCE functionaries and countries that consider themselves model democracies," the statement said.
Lira contracted bilateral pneumonia while in prison in October 2023, according to a note from the journalist provided by his father, Gonzalo Lira Sr. to US website The Grayzone. He previously posted a photo of the note. According to Lira Sr.'s testimony, the prison administration ignored and tried to hide the fact of his son’s illness from family and lawyers. Lira Sr. demanded that the US embassy in Kiev do something about the situation. However, the diplomatic mission, according to him, did nothing to help.
Last spring, Russia urged the global journalistic community to speak out in defense of Lira, who was kidnapped by the Security Service of Ukraine, and demand his immediate release. The service detained the blogger in May 2023 in Kharkov over his support for the Russian special operation in Ukraine.