LONDON, July 10. /TASS/. The UK government's refusal to accredit Russia’s Sputnik news agency and the RT TV channel to a media freedom conference in London constitutes a gross interference into the work of the media, a spokesperson for the Russian Embassy in London said on Tuesday.
The statement came in response to the Foreign Office’s statement, which says the Russian media outlets were denied accreditation for their "active role in spreading disinformation."
"This statement by the Foreign Office once again confirms our conclusion that the denial of accreditation was a politically motivated decision. As we pointed out earlier, we view it as an act of direct discrimination of Russian journalists. This decision looks particularly outrageous in a situation when RT and Sputnik work in the United Kingdom on legitimate grounds, under control of relevant regulatory bodies," the embassy said.
"When, despite the valid license, the decision to allow or not to allow a media outlet to this or that event (let alone, to a conference on media freedoms) is made by officials on the basis of their own political interpretation of disinformation, this can be described only as a censorship and a blatant interference of the executive power into the work of the media," it continued.
The Russian embassy also said that the UK government "has publicly filed serious charges" against the Russian media, and, therefore, Moscow demands to reveal concrete facts that justify those accusations within the next 24 hours.
"Otherwise, this accusation itself will become a clear example of disinformation, which in this case comes hand in hand with with slander and smearing of professional reputation," the embassy said. "By the way, it turns out that the Foreign Office’s initial statement that RT was not allowed to participate because the quota has already been reached was an act of disinformation, too."
"UK’s pretense to be a ‘global leader’ in the fight against disinformation looks particularly clumsy against this background. Those [claims] are made by the government of a country which uses disinformation as a basis for most important elements of its foreign policy: air strikes on Syria were based on unconfirmed claims of chemical weapons use, demolition of political relations with Russia - on baseless accusations of our country’s role in the Salisbury incident. Earlier, an act of aggression against Iran was justified with false claims they possessed weapons of mass destruction and so on. In all this cases and in many other, the UK media is becoming an instrument in the hands of the UK government," the Russian embassy spokesperson said.
The Global Conference for Media Freedom is held in the British capital on July 10-11. It will be hosted by the heads of British and Canadian foreign agencies, Jeremy Hunt and Chrystia Freeland. The forum will particularly discuss such topics as protection of journalists’ rights, prosecution of people committing crimes against media representatives and countering fake news.