MOSCOW, December 20. /TASS/. The collective West has unleashed the biggest-ever totalitarian censorship campaign against Russia’s mass media, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday.
At a news conference on Monday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for developing the rules of responsibility for social networks with regard to their content. He said that he would be shocked to see freedom of the press be jeopardized. "Would he be shocked if he saw it? Hasn’t he seen it already? Or maybe he does not want to see it. Or maybe he isn’t allowed to see it. Or maybe they have not shown him," she wrote on her Telegram channel.
"Thanks to the collective West, we have become witnesses to the flagrant act of mass totalitarian censorship, the biggest-ever in all of history. Entire segments of the global information space have been practically cleared of Russia’s media presence," she noted. "All possible formats of restrictions have been used against Russian sources of information, with global IT giants getting involved. More than 40 Russian media resources have been blocked and barred from broadcasting this year alone. Unwanted journalists and entire editorial boards of the "wrong," as the West claims, mass media systematically undergo pressure from special services, criminal prosecution, open harassment and even physical violence."
Zakharova recalled that for years Russia has been calling for developing a legal framework for internet resources and has already passed corresponding laws, which were met by the West "nervously, to put it mildly." "We have been speaking in favor of filling the legal vacuum in the context of social networks. Just what the UN secretary general is saying now. But our position has been criticized by advocates of the neo-liberal approach and all-permissiveness," she added.
She suggested that the United Nations return to the discussion of Russia’s initiative to draft an international convention to regulate the activities of global internet companies, which "has been gathering dust on the UN chief’s table for two years."
"It is necessary to invigorate joint efforts to formulate generally accepted norms to put the activities of internet giants on a solid basis of international law. It is necessary to negotiate to find a solution to the problem before it is too late," she stressed.