MOSCOW, May 16. /TASS/. Ukraine remains reluctant to review its discriminatory policy against Russian media websites and goes ahead with its access ban, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday.
"Once again, the Ukrainian leadership demonstrated in practice that it has no plans to review the discriminatory and illegitimate policy regarding Russian media outlets," the foreign ministry said, commenting on Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s decision to ban access to Russian websites and social media on the Ukrainian territory.
"We view this step as an act of direct censorship, aimed at removing alternative viewpoints from the country’s information space. Such actions constitute a blatant violation of fundamental principles of the international law, such as the freedom of expression and equal access to information," the ministry said in a statement.
The statement says that the move remains just a "small share" of the Ukrainian government’s "consistent policy of repressions" against the media. Within the framework of this policy, the authorities toughen laws and state regulations of the media sphere and resort to administrative and other forms of pressure on journalists, whose lives and freedom have long been in danger as a result of their professional activities.
"Up until now, a series of murders of journalists remains unsolved, including the crimes of 2014 that claimed the lives of Andrei Stenin, Anton Voloshin, Igor Kornelyuk and Anatoly Klyan," the ministry said.
Moreover, Moscow views as inadmissible the Ukrainian government’s policy of abetting the "Mirotvorets extremist website, which directly threatens the security of journalists."
"We call upon relevant international organizations and human rights NGOs, including OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Desir, to react properly. We also ask Kiev’s European and overseas partners to explain how the Ukrainian government’s policy corresponds to democratic values and principles," the ministry said.
Ban on Russian websites
On Friday, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has approved a decision of the National Security and Defense Council to extend a previously imposed ban on a number of Russian websites and social networks for three more years, according to the official website of the Ukrainian president.
The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council submitted its proposal with the president on Wednesday requesting a prolongation of the national ban on Russian social networks for three more years. The Ukrainian parliament, Verkhovna Rada, passed a resolution on May 13 requesting an extension of sanctions against Russia-based Internet companies.
On May 15, 2017, then Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko signed into effect a decision made by the National Security and Defense Council on expanding the Russian sanctions list of 1,228 Russian individuals and 468 legal entities.
Sanctions were imposed on several TV channels and Internet companies, including 1C, ABBYY and their Ukrainian subsidiaries. In addition, Russia’s VKontakte and Odnoklassniki social networks, Mail.ru and Yandex companies were banned.