Maria Zakharova, Deputy Director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Life News that this is why the Ukrainian authorities are doing their best to silence Russian journalists.
Ms Zakharova, first of all, let’s talk about Russian press photographer Andrei Stenin. Is there any information on his whereabouts and current status?
I recall discussing with your colleagues the fate of LifeNews correspondents who were captured in May. And I vividly recall my statement that, unfortunately, this is only the beginning. There is just one reason: As long as Russian journalists are present in Ukraine, we and the entire world can learn the whole truth about current developments. Therefore Kiev is resorting to unprecedented pressure tactics, intimidation, detention, arrests and inspections in order to completely force the Russian media out of Ukraine. In turn, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Russian Embassy in Kiev are doing everything possible to find out the fate of the Rossiya Segodnya press photographer and to secure his release.
We received a video showing the arrest of LifeNews employees and a video showing the interrogation of our cameraman, Marat Saichenko. However, we have nothing on Stenin; we don’t even know whether he is alive or not …
Tougher methods are being used. The public eye was not riveted on Ukraine before the downing of the Malaysia Airlines plane crash. Of course politicians and analysts were focused on the crisis, but most NGOs and ordinary people were less interested in it. The stakes have now been raised, and consequently they are trying to block alternative coverage of Ukrainian developments. So, unprecedented pressure tactics are being used. Please keep in mind that the situation is becoming more difficult.
And would you say that Russian journalists alone are being pressured? Do Western journalists face any threats in Ukraine?
- Do you remember when over 400 Ukrainian soldiers requested assistance from Russia? A Defence Ministry plane, scheduled to fly to the Rostov Region that same day, could have carried a group of foreign journalists on a one-day trip. I couldn’t believe my eyes when they brought me a list of the participants one hour later. Apart from a Bloomberg reporter, there was no other correspondent from the United States. To be honest, this answers your question. There are absolutely no Western journalists there. They don’t cover the other aspects of the conflict, and they simply get all their information from official Kiev. But if journalists refuse to deal with sources of first-hand information, then you should ask where CNN or The New York Times gets its information?
Just a few days ago, we asked several Russian embassies to provide us with examples of biased Western media coverage of the Ukrainian crisis. This caused a response similar to Homeric laughter. The embassies suggested providing examples of objective coverage instead. We collect these examples because everything else is biased coverage. At the same time, Russia provides a lot of information which is not published. Two weeks ago we invited foreign correspondents to attend a news conference by Sergey Lavrov so they wouldn’t be able to cite the lack of materials. When we monitored media publications after the event, it turned out that not a single major international wire service had said anything about the news conference. When we called and asked for an explanation, the journalists replied that one photo of Mr Lavrov was enough.
- So, was this the situation before the investigation of the downed airliner?
What advice can the Foreign Affairs Ministry offer to journalists now in Ukraine? Would it be better if they avoided the war zone?
Every journalist should decide whether to go or not. As a state agency, we consider the presence of Russian journalists in Ukraine and their work there to be a matter of principle. We see this as an opportunity to obtain alternative information and to provide the global audience with this alternative opinion of regional developments. We are infinitely grateful to those people who are working there. I personally know many journalists, we correspond with many of them, we ask for some details, and we help them to the best of our ability. Many of them have left Syria for the Ukrainian conflict zone. So we never lost contact with them. We will always stand with you; we will always support you, and we will do everything possible to extricate you from any unfortunate situation......................https://www.facebook.com/MIDRussia/posts/526965584069554
14/8/14
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