MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/. Russia views the revocation of accreditations from TASS reporters by the Paralympic Games Organizing Committee as politically biased, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.
"On August 20, the Paralympic Games Organizing Committee in Paris, citing the verdict of the French authorities, withdrew accreditations from two TASS correspondents. Earlier, the applications of two more journalist employees of the agency were rejected. The organizers of the Paralympics did not find it necessary to explain the true reasons for the denial of access for covering the competitions. As a reminder, the practice of denying accreditation had already been widely applied to members of Russian media (TASS, RIA Novosti Sport, Izvestia) at the 2024 Olympics," she said. "We regard these decisions of the organizing committee, which obediently does the Russophobic bidding of the Elysee Palace, as an inadmissible manifestation of its political bias, something that is inconsistent with the ideals of the international Olympic movement".
The diplomat also said that sports officials, through their actions, not only "continue to devalue the importance of the principle of sport being above politics, but also flagrantly violate fundamental human rights and freedoms, including the right to unhindered access to information and freedom of expression."
It is very telling that the International Paralympic Committee hastened to dissociate itself from the discriminatory steps of the host country, the spokeswoman said. "However, it will not be possible to justify such illegitimate bans by the requirements of the host country, because underlying such ‘verdicts’ is a deeply discriminatory, openly Russophobic policy of Paris, which directly contradicts the basic provisions of the Olympic Charter and other regulatory documents in the field of international sport."
Moscow is not surprised that Paris' political censorship is not faced with a backlash from the relevant international structures, including UNESCO and the OSCE, "which prefer to turn a blind eye to any arbitrariness against the media on the part of neoliberal democracies."
The revocation of accreditations from TASS reporters showed that France’s commitment to democracy is only ostensible, Zakharova said.
"Paris has again clearly demonstrated the ostensible nature of its commitment to the norms of a democratic society. In practice, there can be no talk of media pluralism and freedom of speech in a country where journalists are segregated into those who are in favor and those who aren’t," the diplomat said. "Amid systematic harassment of Russian athletes, and now also Russian news media, the statement form the IPC (International Paralympic Committee - TASS) can be seen as a tacit approval of this flawed practice.".