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Lavrov urged OSCE representative on freedom of the media to be freer in her judgments

He added that it was impossible that fascist and new-Nazi marches were held in some OSCE member states

© EPA / SEAN GALLUP / POOL

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, March 30. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called on the OSCE representative on freedom of the media, Dunja Mijatovic, to be a little bit freer in her judgments.

In an interview with Sergei Brilyov, who hosts a news programme on Russian television every Saturday (News on Saturday with Sergei Brilyov), Lavrov said he was sorry that the OSCE representative on freedom of the media had justified the closure of several Russian TV channels in Ukraine.

“It turns out that it is possible to stop TV broadcasts if fundamental values are in question,” Lavrov said in his interview. The Russian foreign minister added that Russia had told Mijatovic several times in the past that it was impossible that fascist and new-Nazi marches were held in some OSCE member states.

“However, there was no reaction on her part under the pretext of freedom of speech. It turns out that Dunja, I mean Mijatovic, considers four channels to be more dangerous than neo-Nazi marches in the Baltic States and some other countries, including Germany,” Lavrov explained.

On March 25, the Kiev Administrative Court ruled that the broadcasts of Russian television channels in Ukraine should be stopped after the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting had sent a lawsuit to court on March 24, asking it to check the legality of operation of Russian television channels in the Ukrainian territory. The Council also recommended the cable providers to “temporarily abstain” from retransmitting programs of Russia’s channels Vesti, Rossiya 24, Channel One, RTR Planeta and NTV-Mir within their cable networks.

Dunja Mijatovic, the OSCE representative on freedom of the media, who commented the situation with the Russian TV channels in Ukraine, said that practice was justified if it served the cause of “protecting fundamental values.

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