MOSCOW, January 23. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has voiced concerns over double standards of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on regulating media’s work.
The diplomat slammed in particular the organization’s harsh response to a Russian bill on fighting against disseminating materials insulting state symbols and government institutions.
She noted that OSCE media freedom representative Harlem Desir did not even wait for the results of discussing the document in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, rushing to publicly voice his concerns over Russia’s possible restrictions of the freedom of speech in the Internet and growing censorship. "Why are these double standards at work needed?" Zakharova said. "This is very strange."
The diplomat recalled that when a French bill was adopted, "which obviously restricts media in everything," a restrained reaction by the OSCE followed two months later, "and this was an unequivocal assessment on the compliance of these laws with the general principles and norms of media regulation."
Zakharova drew attention to the fact that when "Russia is concerned, a reaction comes at lightning speed, just an hour after the first news comes," but no one asks about an expert assessment by the Russian side or the Russian expert community.
Moscow considers that the OSCE media freedom representative should not exert political pressure, she stressed.
Earlier reports said the State Duma committee on information policy, information technologies and communications recommended that the lower house should pass in the first reading a high-profile bill on combating the dissemination of materials, which insult state symbols and Russian government institutions.
The bill proposes a ban on publishing in the mass media and on the Internet "untruthful socially significant information disguised as authentic reports, which poses a threat to people’s lives and health and is fraught with mass violations of public order and security, disruption in the operation of crucial life support facilities, transport and social infrastructures or other grave consequences."