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Kremlin blasts 'absurd' claims of 'ban on bad news' on national TV

The Kremlin replied to a remark that national TV channels barely covered the Kemerovo shopping mall blaze when initial reports broke about the catastrophe due to some sort of "block on bad news"

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov Mikhail Metzel/TASS

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov

© Mikhail Metzel/TASS

MOSCOW, March 26. /TASS/. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has castigated presumptions that national TV channels might have banned the release of bad news as utter drivel and completely ludicrous. Peskov responded to a reporter’s claim that federal television stations barely covered the blaze the engulfed the Kemerovo shopping mall when the first reports broke about the calamity on Sunday due to some "block on bad news."

Read also

Fire tragedy at Kemerovo shopping mall leaves at least 64 dead

"This is sheer nonsense," Peskov replied. "When the first reports appeared no one could have anticipated that this tragedy would be so enormous. However, when the horrible scale of this tragedy became clear - I watched TV news reports yesterday, that said, Sundays tend to be a slow news day - I saw materials about it," he noted.

"As for banning bad news, this is utterly absurd," the spokesman stated.

A fire broke out on March 25 engulfing a shopping mall in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, which ended up taking the lives of at least 64 people. Firefighters extinguished the blaze that scorched 1,500 square meters and are clearing the debris. Four people were detained and questioned by criminal investigators, including the lessee of the room in which the fire is believed to have started.

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