MOSCOW, July 03./ITAR-TASS/. Moldova’s decision to ban Russia 24 TV news channel for the next six months until January 1, 2015 is outrageous and will certainly produce a negative impact on the Russian-Moldovan relations, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

"It is clear that Moldova took this step under a far-fetched pretext on the wave of euphoria from signing an association agreement with the European Union. However, the decision does not meet an integral right of citizens to free access to information, one of the basic European democratic principles, which Chisinau is zealously trying to observe,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in its statement.

Russian Civic Chamber finds a ban on the transmission of Rossiya-24 television channel in Moldova to be a politically-motivated decision.

“This is a purely political decision connected with developments in Ukraine,” the forum's deputy secretary Vladislav Grib told ITAR-TASS on Friday. “Moldova exerts undue pressure on Russia. This is an unfriendly act against the country. And the alleged ‘inconsistency of the channel’s programming with the provisions of Moldova’s Broadcasting Code’, cited as a reason, just seems silly as it is a news channel.”

“Such cases should not go unnoticed”, Grib said. “The entire journalistic community and international organisations for protection of journalists’ rights should give close attention to such decisions.”

Russia in its turn should “take appropriate measures of reaction to this ban, including economic ones,” he added.

Earlier in the day, the Coordination Radio and TV Broadcasting Council of Moldova suspended the programs of Rossiya-24 channel’s programs until January 1, 2015, due to the “inconsistency of its programming with the provisions of Moldova’s Broadcasting Code”.

At present, the broadcasting of four Russian channels - Channel One, RTR-Planeta, Rossiya-24, and NTV-Mir is suspended in Ukraine.