Filenews 26 June 2024
The Russian government is imposing collective retaliation against 81 media outlets in the European Union today, in response, as it states, to a decision of the Council of the EU of May 17, which banned "all broadcasting activity" in three Russian media groups (RIA Novosti, Izvestia and Rossiiskaya Gazeta). Among the 81 European SMEs are three Cypriot, four from Greece and many others with widespread influence in the EU, which will no longer be accessible from the territory of the Russian Federation.
The Cypriot media, "which are rather symbolically placed on Russia's informal blacklist until further notice, but without hindering the flow of information between the two countries", as experienced diplomatic sources commented to CNA, are the newspapers "Politis" (politis.com.cy) and "Cyprus Mail" (cyprus-mail.com), as well as the information website "Cyprus Times" (cyprustimes.com), while from Greece the public television group ERT (ert.gr, ertnews.gr), the television networks 'Skai' (skai.gr) and 'Mega' (megatv.com) and the newspaper 'Proto Thema' (protothema.gr).
It is characteristic that in the major European countries the Russian "list of restrictions" includes key, central media such as the German magazine "Der Spiegel" and the newspapers "Die Zeit" and "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" or the French newspapers "Liberation" and "Le Monde", the French News Agency and the state-owned "Radio France".
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry statement, the European media, against which restrictive measures are imposed, "systematically disseminate inaccurate information about the course of the special military operation" and are a reality of the repeated warnings of the Russian side "at various levels that politically motivated restrictions on Russian journalists and unfounded bans on Russian media on the territory of the EU They will not go unanswered."
According to the Russian side, "Brussels and the capitals of the countries of the Union preferred to follow the path of escalation, forcing Moscow with yet another illegal ban to take equivalent and proportionate countermeasures", which is why according to the Russian Foreign Ministry "the responsibility for this development lies exclusively with the leadership of the EU and the countries of this Union. who supported this decision."
In the event that "restrictions on Russian media are lifted, the Russian side will also reconsider its decision regarding these media entities," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
